KITTY  OF  THf  ROSE 

BY  RALPH  HP.NRV  BARBOli' 


V- 


1  \<to*\ 


^  '} 

..       /')0-&f-<. 


KITTY  OF  THE   ROSES 


J&electcU  .fiction 

JS 
BACCARAT 

By  FKANK  DANBY 
Illustrated.     £1.50 

THE   ISSUE 

By  GEORGE  MORGAN 

Illustrated.     $1.50 

OLIVE   LATHAM 
By  E.  L.  VOYNICH 
$1.30 

POKETOWN   PEOPLE 

By  ELLA  MIDULETON  TYBOUT 

Illustrated  in  colors.     $1.50 

NEW   SAMARIA 

By  S.  WEIR  MITCHELL,  M.D. 
Illustrated.     £1.25 

AN   ANGEL  BY   BREVET 
By  HELEN  PITKIN" 
Frontispiece.     £1.50 


'-''.''  • 


PERHAPS    I    CAN    HELP    YOU?"     SAID    A    VOICE    ALMOST    OVERHEAD 

P.^ge  62 


KITTY 
THE  ROSES 


RALPH    HENRY  ^ARBOUR 

AUTHOR     OF     "  THE    LAND     OF    JOY,"    ETC. 


With  Illustrations  by 
FREDERIC  J.   VON  RAPP 


PHILADELPHIA     y     LONDON 
J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,   1904 
BY  J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


Published  November,  1904 


es 


3 


Electrotyped  and  Printed  by 
J.   B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,    U.  S.  A. 


TO 

MRS.  JOHN   W.  ALLISON 

OF    PHILADELPHIA 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


"PERHAPS     I     CAN      HELP      YOU?"      SAID     A    VOICE 

ALMOST  OVERHEAD  -          Frontispiece 

THE  BASKET  WEIGHTED  WITH   PINK  AND  WHITE 

BLOSSOMS    -  19 

CALMLY  SNIPPED  TWO  BUNCHES  OF  PINK  ROSES          56 
STOOD  GAZING  FULL  UPON  HIM  -   158 

"A.Nu  ME,   KITTY?"   HE  WHISPERED   -  -   173 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 

I 

THROUGH  the  wide-open  window 
floated  in  the  fragrance  of  dew-drip 
ping  flowers.  On  the  edge  of  the 
table  a  smouldering1  cigarette  sent 

o  o 

up  a  thin,  wavering  filament  of  gray 
smoke  that  lost  itself  in  the  upper 
gloom  of  the  darkened  room,  leaving 
behind  it  a  not-unpleasing  odor  of 
the  Orient  to  mingle  with  the  in 
cense  from  the  gardens  without. 
When  he  paused  in  his  writing — and 
pauses  were  frequent — Mr.  Stephen 
Burton's  gaze  invariably  wandered  to 

9 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


the   sunlighted   morning  world   repre 
sented  by  the  vista  at  his  elbow. 

Immediately    below    him    a    small, 
turf-carpeted  garden  formed  a  square 
of  shadow  and  sunlight.      A  jasmine 
clambered      and 
sprawled    along 
the  purple  brick 
wall  at  the  rear, 
and     a     narrow, 
chocolate-hued 
b e ct     of    moist 
loam  caught  the 
fallen     blooms. 
The     bed    held 
white      and      purple 
and    lavender    iris,    and    spiraea,    and 
blue   pentstemon,   and   was   bordered 
with    honey-flower.      At    the    end    of 
the     old    wall,   where    it    formed     an 
angle  with  an  iron   fence,    a   queerly 


KITTY    OF    THE    ROSES 

shaped   Daphne-tree  threw  grotesque 
shadows   on    the    little   lawn.      But  it 
was  beyond  the  rusty 
iron  barrier  that  Bur- 
ton's  eyes  found  their  c 
richest  reward. 

There  stretched  a 
quadrangle  that  was  bounded 
by  walls  on  two  sides  and 
at  the  farther  end  by  the  back 
of  an  old-fashioned  Southern  house, 
staid  and  sleepy-looking,  whose  sec 
ond-story  porch,  half  hidden  by  vines 
over  white-painted  iron  lattice-work, 
held  a  hammock  which  ever  since  Bur 
ton's  coming  had  remained  idle,  swing 
ing  lazilv  in  the  afternoon  breezes. 

O  -1 

The  quadrangle  was  intersected  by 
narrow  reel  gravel  paths  bordered  by 
box  hedges  waist-high.  And  between 
the  hedges,  against  the  walls,  along 


KITTY    OF    THE    ROSES 

the  fence,  and  clambering  upon  the 
house  were  roses.  Never  had  Bur 
ton  seen  or  dreamed  of  such  roses. 
The  garden  was  a  riot  of  intense 
reds,  of  tender  pinks,  of  flaring  yel 
lows  and  dazzling  whites,  and  of 
every  hue  and  tint  between. 

For  the  most  part,  they  were  the  fa 
vorites  of  a  generation  gone  :  Bank- 
sias,  festoonintr  the  warm  bricks  with 

o 

bouquets  of  amber  yellow  and  of 
violet-tinged  white  ;  Baltimore  Belles, 
creamy-hued  and  graceful ;  rosy-violet 
Pride  of  Washingtons ;  sweetbriers 
of  scarlet  and  blush  ;  Austrian  briers, 
single  blossoms  of  flame-yellow.  In 
the  beds  were  great  cabbao-e-roses  of 

o  o 

delicate,  clear  pink  and  of  deep  rose  ; 
moss-roses  of  many  sorts,  crimson 
Damasks,  bright-red  Luxembourgs, 


KITTY    OF   THE    ROSES 


tiny  clusters  of  flesh-colored  Pompons. 
An  immense  bush  of  Gloire  des  Jar- 
dins  was  aflame  with  its  great  double 
blooms  of  red,  while  clustered  about  it 
were  Madame  Cottins,  Philippe 
Ouatres,  Marceaus,  Madame 
Hardys,  Princess  Clementines, 
and  Madame  Plantiers.  The 
rich  crimson,  cup-shaped 
blossoms  of  a  George  the 
Fourth  were  nodding  regally 
over  the  yellow-pink  blooms 
of  an  Emmeline  ;  the  brown 
velvet  petals  of  a  Lord  Nelson  were 
clustering  above  a  lowly  Wellington  ; 
while,  supreme  in  one  three-cornered 
jungle  of  color,  a  spreading  bush  of 
Queen  Victoria,  an  offshoot  of  the 
parent  stem,  showered  the  ground 
with  its  glowing  petals. 

Above    the    farther    wall    leaned  a 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


magnolia,  a  portly,  eminently  respect 
able  magnolia,  spreading  its  long 
branches  far  out  over 
•  the  garden  as  though 
offering  old-gentle 
manly  protection  to 
the  rose-ladies.  In 


the  long  afternoons  the  green 
and    bronze    foliage,    now    re 
flecting  the  morning  sunlight  from 

o  o  o 

its  varnished  surface,  made  a  pleas 
ant  gloom  thereabouts,  throwing  great 
gently  -  moving  ovals  of  greenish 
shadow  over  the  rosebushes  along 

o 

the  old  wall  ;  here  was  the  Giant  of 
Battles,  with  petals  so  darkly  red  as 
to  verge  upon  black,  and  the  Duch 
ess,  with  old-fashioned  blooms,  globu 
lar,  chary  of  petals,  showing  yellow 
at  the  heart  when  fully  opened  to 
the  sun,  and  of  a  rare  old  shade  of 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

pink  that  made  one  think  of  lavender- 
scented  brocades  and  was  like  the 
inner  surface  of  a  sea-shell. 

Many  a  rose  bloomed  there 
whose     name    was     no    longer 
known,   whose   origin   was    for 
gotten  with   its    grower,   but 
which,  nameless  and  unpre 
tentious,  leafed  and  budded 
and  flowered  season   after  sea 
son,    year    after    year,    gladly    and 
humbly  fulfilling  its  mission   and  set 
ting  an  example  which  many  of  the 
far-heralded  and  perverse  beauties 
of  the  garden  might  well  have  emu 
lated. 

In  one  corner  dwelt  a  foreign  colony 
of  hardy  phlox,  white,  scarlet,  and 
crimson,  tall  and  vigorous  as  they 
needs  must  be  in  order  to  reach  the 
sunlight  above  the  great  rose-bushes 
15 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

and  to  maintain  their  hard-won  foot 
ing.  And  here  and  there,  aliens  too, 
yuccas  shot  their  great  spikes  above 
the  wilderness  of  bloom  and  swune 

o 

their  panicles  of  cream-colored  bells, 
whose  tinkline  the  birds  and  bees 

o 

alone  might  hear,  in  the  languorous 
morning  breeze.  Fallen  petals 
splashed  the  level  tops  of  the  box 
hedges  with  brilliant  colors,  and,  when 
a  vagrant  wind  set  the  blooms  a-nod- 
ding,  fluttered  to  the  gravel  paths 
and  so  drifted  like  scented,  tinted 
snowflakes  to  and  fro.  In  the  shad 
owed  corners  of  the  hedge  closely 
woven  spider  webs  were  jewelled 
with  dew-drops  and,  when  the  moving 
leaves  let  the  sun-flecks  through. 

O        ' 

gleamed  and  sparkled  like  silver  fila 
ments  huncr  with  diamonds  and  blue 

o 

pearls. 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


For  the  fiftieth  time  since  breakfast 
Burton  looked  up  from  the  littered 
table  and  ^azed  over 

o 

the  scene,  inhaling 
the  intense  yet  deli-/, 
cate  perfume  and 
bathing  his  sight  in 
the  little  sea  of  color  with  a 
sensation  of  almost  physical 
delight.  And  as  he  looked,  there 
stepped  into  the  scene  a  flower  that 
dimmed  the  others  as  the  moonlight 
dims  the  first  faint  radiance  of  the 
stars.  He  dropped  his  pen,  heedless 
of  the  fact  that  it  rolled  over  his 
clean  sheets  leaving  a  broken  trail  of 
ink,  and  leaned  towards  the  casement 
with  eager  eyes  and  quickened  breath. 
The  flower  was  dressed  in  white, 
in  hue  a  modest  blossom  enough,  its 

o      ' 

only  color  being  a  sash  of  lilac  ribbon 

17 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

about  its  waist.  On  its  head — for, 
after  all,  what  does  it  matter  if  meta 
phors  are  mixed  ? — was  a  broad- 
brimmed  garden  hat  wound  about 
the  crown  with  a  filmy  white  veil. 
It — she — carried  a  basket  in  one  hand 
and  with  the  other  held  up  daintily 
the  skirt  of  her  £own.  For  a  moment 

o 

she  stood  on  the  topmost  step  in  the 
green  shadow  of  a  yellow  Banksia, 
small,  graceful,  a  very  rose  herself, 
and  the  fairest,  daintiest  in  all  the 
garden.  Burton's  papers  rustled  in 
the  tiny  momma-  breeze  and  fluttered 

^  O 

unseen  one  by  one  to  the  dark-hued, 
highly  polished  floor.  He  leaned  an 
elbow  on  the  sill  and,  without  shame, 
kept  his  eyes  upon  the  denizen  of 
the  rose-garden.  After  a  moment  of 
smiling  survey  of  the  scene  the  girl 
descended  the  steps  and,  basket  at 
18 


THE    BASKET    WEIGHTED    WITH     PINK    AND    WHITE    BLOSSOMS 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

side,  threaded  the  paths,  snipping  here 
and  there  with  a  pair  of  tiny  scissors 
held  in  a  gloved  hand  until  the  basket 
was  filled  and  weighted  with  pink  and 
white  blossoms. 

Yet  all  the  time  the  broad  brim  of 
her  hat  threw  a  soft  shadow  across 
her  face,  and  it  was  not  until  she 
paused  beside  the  iron  fence  to  clip  a 
single  cluster  of  crimson  Damasks 

o 

that  the  watcher  in  the  window  was 
rewarded  with  a  clear  view  of  her 
features.  Perhaps,  for  a  Northerner, 
Burton  was  impressionable.  At  all 
events,  it  is  a  fact  that  when  she  lifted 
her  face  for  a  moment  in  an  idle 
glance  towards  the  neighboring  house 
and  the  light  fell  fully,  boldly  upon  it, 
his  heart  leaped  chokingly  and  then, 
with  a  series  of  disconcerting  bumps 
and  thuds,  raced  faster  than  it  had 
19 


KITTY    OF    THE    ROSES 


within  his  memory.  And  yet  the 
glimpse  he  had  was  but  a  fleeting 
one,  for  the  aid's  eves  encountered 

o  ^ 

his  own,  and  after  a 
look  of  infinitesimal 
duration,  a  look  preg 
nant  with  surprise 
and  dismay,  were 

swiftly  lowered,  while 

/ 

a    faint    blush     crept 
over  the  warm,  clear 
skin.      The    next    in 
stant  the  shadow  had 
descended  again  ;  an 
other,    and    she    had 
turned    away,   blossom- 
laden,  towards  the  house. 
Burton    crazed   after   her,   his   mind  a 

O 

confused  memory  of  warm,  brown 
hair  and  clear,  startled  brown  eyes  ; 
of  a  tender,  oval  face,  southern-hued, 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


sun-lighted  ;    of  small,    red  lips,  upon 
which  a  little   triad  smile   was    fadino- 

o  ^ 

before  a  look  of  confusion.     Up 
the  path  she  went,  with   never 
a    look    behind,    yet    not     hur 
riedly  ;    plainly,    she    wanted   it 
understood  that  here  was  no 
rout,    but    merely   a    retire 
ment  in  good  order  before  a 
superior  and   better-positioned 
force.     Suddenly  from  an  open  win 
dow  of  the  house  above  her  a  voice 
called,  a  man's  voice,  languidly  im 
perative,— 

"Kitty!    Kitty!" 

"I'm  coming,"  called  the  girl.  She 
flew  lightly  up  the  steps,  the  door  was 
opened  from  within  by  invisible  hands, 
and  the  girl  and  the  blossoms  disap 
peared.  The  door  closed  with  a  sub 
dued  slam. 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 

Burton  drew  a  long-  sigh  and  me 
chanically  picked  up  his  dead  ciga 
rette. 

"  Kitty,"  he  murmured  under  his 
breath  ;  and  again,  "  Kitty  !  " 

Then,   with   the   cigarette   burning, 

o  o 

he  blew  a  cloud  of  purple  smoke  out 
of  the  window  into  the  June  sunshine 
and    nodded    his    head    confidentially 
towards  the  garden  and  the  house. 
"  Kitty  of  the  Roses,"  he  whispered. 


TOWNS,  like  persons,  have  individu 
ality,  some  distinct,  others  indistinct. 
By  the  individuality  of  some  we  are 
attracted,  by  that  of  others  we  are 
repelled.  There  are  some  that  are 
sour,  selfish,  intent  only  upon  them 
selves,  that  give  us  a  scowl  of  sus 
picion  for  greeting  and  turn  their 
shoulder  as  one  who  would  say  "  I 
don't  know  you  and  I  don't  want  to. 
I  am  very  bus}'  ;  keep  out  of  my 
way."  Then  there  are  towns  that 
shout  us  a  lau<jhina-  "  Hello,"  that 

<_>  o 

shake   our    hand   and    pat   our   back, 
merry,      care-free,     pleasure-pursuing 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

towns  these  that  make  us  welcome 
so  long  as  we  laugh  and  sing  with 
them,  but  have  no  love  for  us  when 
we  frown  or  weep. 

There  are  frankly  mercenary  towns 
whose  greetings  are  shrewd  and  sober 
and  whose  eyes  seek  our  pocket-book 
even  as  the  door  closes  behind  us. 
In  such  towns  our  welcome  is  likely 
to  be  just  as  long  as  our  bank  ac 
count,  but,  at  least,  we  will  find  no 
hypocrisy.  And  then  there  are  towns 
that  are  like — well,  like  a  genial, 
kindlv-facecl  fellow  who  sits  on  a  bench 

j 

in  the  sunlight  whittling  a  stick,  oaves 

o  o  o 

us  a  neighborly  nod  and  moves  along 
that  we  may  sit  beside  him.  He 
doesn't  take  our  hand,  he  doesn't  look 
askance  at  our  frayed  cuffs  and  bat 
tered  valise,  but,  after  awhile,  if  he 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


likes  us  he  offers  us  a  stick  that  we, 
too,  may  whittle,  or,  maybe,  he  shoves 
his   tobacco   along-   to 
us.       Perhaps    as    we 
sit  there   in   the    sun- 
li<rht   and    watch    him 
we    wonder     why    he 
doesn't   work ;    after   we   have 
stayed   awhile  we   cease    won 
dering  and  find   ourself    content  to 
whittle    and    smoke    in   the    sunshine 
and  let  the  world  wag  along. 

And  there  are  many  other  sorts  of 
towns,  just  as  many  as  there  are  sorts 
of  personality ;  hard,  cross-grained 
towns  ;  fretful,  grumpy  towns  ;  alert, 
busy,  inhospitable  towns  ;  lazy,  dirty 
towns  ;  nervous,  hysterical  towns,  and 
mean,  rapacious  towns.  It  takes  all 
sorts  to  make  a  world,  and  even  in 
the  worst  of  them,  if  we  know  them 
25 


KITTY  OF    THE    HOSES 


intimately   enough,   we   may   find   yir- 
tues   large   enough   to    atone   for   the 
faults.      And    all    this 
'  sermonizing     merely 


' 


a  little   country   town 
that  is   barely  on   the 
ordinary    map     and     that     not 
one    person   in    fifty —  no,    not 
one  in  a  hundred,  perhaps — has  e\rer 
heard  of. 

Belle  Harbour  is  a  town  that 
whittles  in  the  sunshine.  It  is  a 
sleepy,  good-natured,  courteous  old 
town  with  a  picturesque  past  and  a 
dubious  future. 

I  would  much  rather  not  yenture 
upon  exact  dates,  but  Belle  Harbour 
was  something-  of  a  place  when  the 
British  marched  on  Washington,  and 
a  house  that  does  not  lay  claim  to 
26 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


having-  served  as  a  Hessian  barracks, 
a  British  hospital,  or  a  g-eneral's  resi 
dence,  is  so  indecently  modern 
that  good  citizens  view 
askance.  Belle  Harbour  dozed 
quietly  until  the  Civil  War  dis 
turbed  it.  Even  then  it  bore 
excitement  with  a  sort  of 
calm  dignity.  When  the  war 
was  over  it  relapsed  into  slum 
ber  once  more  and  now  nothing- 
save  the  last  trump  will  ever  fully 
awaken  it. 

But  it's  a  fine  old  town,  a  town  with 
a  dignified  past,  with  substantial  red 
brick  mansions  set  just  back  from  its 
broad  streets,  with  oaks  and  chestnuts 
shading-  the  crumbling  brick  sidewalks, 
and  magnolias  leaning  over  the  mossy 
walls  and  rusted  fences.  Belle  Har 
bour's  streets  are  wide,  not  because 
27 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

traffic  demands  width,  but  because 
when  the  town  was  laid  out  there  was 
a  great  deal  of  room  and  it  seemed  a 
pity  not  to  make  use  of  as  much  of 
it  as  was  possible.  So  on  Belle  Har 
bour's  main  streets  ten  vehicles  could 
very  easily  pass  side  by  side.  Xot 
that  they  ever  have  or  ever  will  ;  the 
sound  of  one  mud-splashed  buggy 
rattling  over  the  paving  stones  is  an 
event  that  causes  great  interest,  while 
the  simultaneous  appearance  of  two 
vehicles  produces  a  condition  of  mild 
panic  up  and  down  the  streets.  Xext 
to  the  low  curbstones  the  worn,  irreg 
ular  paving  stones  show  signs  of 
travel  ;  but  for  die  rest,  the  streets 
are  wild  wastes  of  weeds  and  grass, 

o 

wherein  here  and  there  a  splash  of 
color  tells  where  an  adventurous 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


garden  flower,  aided  by  bird  or  breeze, 
is  striving  to  colonize  the  wilderness. 

O 

Life  flows  very  evenly,  very  quietly, 
and,  I  think,  very  happily  in  Belle 
Harbour.  Children  are  born,  grow 
up,  marry,  and  die  without  moving  out 
of  sight  of  old  Christ  Church,  save, 
perhaps,  for  a  brief  but  adventurous 
journey  to  Washington,  Richmond  or 
the  coast.  Business  sometimes  takes 
the  Belle  Harbour  citizen  to  Wash 
ington  ;  sometimes  social  obligations 
render  a  trip  to  the  capital  necessary; 
honeymoons  are  always  spent  at  Vir 
ginia  Beach.  But  for  the  most  part 
the  resident  of  Kind's 
Street  lives  his  life 
between  the  post- 
office  and  the 
Seminary,  respec 
tively  the  North- 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 

ern  and  Southern  limits  of  his  world. 
When  he  penetrates  beyond  the  Sem 
inary  it  is  to  drive  into  the  country, 
perhaps  to  some  decaying  plantation. 
When  he  goes  North  of  the  post-office 
it  is  to  enter  the  shabby,  care-free 
negro  quarter.  He  clings  very  closely 
to  the  old  traditions,  the  old  customs, 
the  old  thoughts.  There  are  no  tele- 

o 

phones  in  Belle  Harbour,  and  I  doubt 
if  you  could  find  a  phonograph  in  any 
of  the  dim,  white-walled  drawing- 

o 

rooms.  Belle  Harbour  still  shudders 
when  it  recalls  how,  a  few  years  a«fo, 

J  o 

it  was  threatened  with  the  advent  of 
an  electric  car  line.  On  that  occasion 
the  old  town,  if  it  did  not  absolutely 
awake,  at  least  turned  and  muttered 
in  its  sleep,  disturbed  by  monstrous 
visions. 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


The  resident's  of  King's  Street, 
observing  him  from  behind  latticed 
windows  or  meeting 

o 

him  on  the  oak- 
shaded  sidewalk  of 
that  orass-oTown  thor- 

o  o 

oughfare,  wondered 
\vho  Burton  was  and  why 
he  elected  to  take  up  quar 
ters  in  the  town  when  Washing 
ton  was  less  than  twenty  miles  away 
across  the  Potomac.  The  citizens 
of  Belle  Harbour  entertained  no  illu 
sions  regarding  the  desirability  of 
their  town  as  a  place  of  sojourn,  espe 
cially  after  May  ;  they  realized  that  an 
elevation  of  five  feet  above  tide-level 
does  not  constitute  an  ideal  situation, 
and  that,  judged  as  a  health  resort. 
Belle  Harbour  was  far  from  being  a 
success.  Even  admitting  the  idiosyn- 
31 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


crasies  of  the  Northerner,  Burton's 
presence  was  inexplicable.  Belle  Har 
bour  knew  something  about  the 
Northern  traveller,  for  the  town  was 
a  Mecca  towards  which 
\Yashinoton  visitors  fre- 

o 

quently  turned   their 
steps.      But  they  seldom 
tarried  ;    having    viewed 
the  old   church  in   which 
Revolutionary     heroes 
had  worshipped,  and  paid 
their  dimes  and  quarters 
for  sections  of  crumbling 
bricks  supposed  to  have 
been  detached  from  the  edifice  walls, 
but  in  reality  pried  out  of  neighboring 
sidewalks  by  enterprising  boys,   they 
literally    as    well    as     metaphorically 
shook  the  dust  of  the  old  town   from 
their   feet   and   hurried  to  the  steam- 
32 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 


boat.  Even  the  commercial  traveller 
took  pains  to  insure  the  completion 
of  his  business  before  the  last 
boat  returned  to  Washington. 

O 

The  only  hostelry  in   the  town 
confined    its    ministrations    en 
tirely    to     the    citizens,  and 
they     seldom     penetrated 
farther    than    the    little,   low- 
raftered     bar-room.      And     so 
Belle   Harbour  viewed    Burton  with 
extreme  but  courteous  interest. 

The      information     afforded     by 
Mrs.    Phillips,   of  whom   the   visitor 
had  rented  two  second-floor  rooms  for 
an  indefinite  period,  was  limited  and 
unsatisfactory.      He  was  a  New  York 
man,  she   confided,  and   an    architect ; 
he  had   his  meals  sent   to    his    rooms 
and    ate    three  eofp-s  every  morningf ; 

OO  J  O     ' 

he  found    Belle   Harbour  very   pictu- 

3  33 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 

resque  and  interesting,  and  wore  pink 
and  blue  pajamas  ;  he  made  strange 
drawings  in  books  and  did  much  writ- 

o 

ing  ;  he  smoked  cigarettes  or  pipes  all 
day  long  and  dropped  the  ashes  on 
the  floor.  Kino-'s  Street  heard  these 

o 

facts  with  avidity  and  reiterated 
"Why?"  And  Mrs.  Phillips  only 
shook  her  head  and  murmured  in 
tones  of  finality,— 

"Well,  you  must  remember  he's 
a  No'therner  !" 

Burton's  conduct  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  day  which  had  given  him  his 
first  glimpse  of  the  girl  in  the  rose- 
garden  did  nothing  to  dispel  the  grow 
ing  conviction  that  there  was  some 
thing  strange  and  mysterious  about 
his  presence  in  Belle  Harbour.  Armed 
with  a  sketch-book,  he  wandered  aim- 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 

lessly    the    length    of    King's    Street, 

smoked   four   cigarettes   in  the  shade 

of   the    church-yard 

chestnuts,  and  subse 

quently      wandered 

aimlessly  home  again 

without    once    havino- 


o 


set   pencil  to  paper  or,  appar 
ently,   having    seen   auofht    but 

^  o  o 

the  end  of  his  well-made  nose. 
King's  Street  whispered  behind  its 
sun-repelling  jalousies.  And  yet 
Mrs.  Phillips'  s  information,  as  far  as  it 
went,  was  quite  correct,  and  the  mys 
tery  was  apparent  rather  than  real. 

Stephen  Burton  was  an  architect. 
A  commission  for  a  costly  church  edi 
fice  for  a  wealthy  congregation  in  a 
Xew  Jersey  residential  village  had 
sent  him  South  in  search  of  details  of 
pure  Colonial  architecture.  He  had 

35 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

found  more  to  interest  him  in  Belle 
Harbour  than  he  had  anticipated  or 
than  its  citizens  knew  of.  The  old 
church  was  a  veritable  mine  of  valu 
able  material,  and  certain  old 
doorways  and  gables  and 
porches  scattered  through 
the  town  and  over  the 
adjacent  country  were  far 
too  interesting  to  allow 
of  neglect.  Beintr  a  man 

o  o 

of  comfortable  means, 
Burton's  profession  was  a 
passion  rather  than  a  trade  ; 
he  could  and  did  afford  to  accept 
only  those  commissions  that  ap 
pealed  to  him,  but  having  once 
taken  them  he  put  his  very  best  into 
each,  with  the  result  that  he  was  al 
ready  known,  at  thirty-eight  years 
of  age,  as  the  foremost  man  in  the 
36 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


line  of  his  selection — church  and  pub 
lic  edifices.  He  had  already  spent  a 
week  in  Belle  Harbour  ;  there 
was  no  hurry;  if  he  liked,  ^ 
there  was  another  week  at  his 
disposal.  With  an  office  force 
that  could  be  entirely  de 
pended  upon  there  was  no 
good  reason  for  returning 
North  until  it  suited  his  pleas 
ure.  This  afternoon  New  York 
seemed  utterly  repellent  to  him  ;  a 
hot,  noisy,  dusty  city  in  which 
were  no  rose-gardens  and  no  girls 
in  white  gowns  gathered  at  the  waist 
with  lavender  ribbons.  Deuce  take 
New  York  ! 

When  he  gained  his  room,  the  rear 
apartment  that  overlooked  the  side 
yard,  his  first  action  was  to  go  to  the 
window  and  survey  the  prospect.  He 

37 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


found  it  disappointing-.  The  roses 
were  there,  to  be  sure,  and  the  ham 
mock  ;  but  roses  and  hammocks  do 
not  always  in  themselves  satisfy.  He 
lighted  a  pipe  and  wondered  a  trifle 
impatiently  why  the  denizens  of  the 
house  beyond  the  box-hedged  garden 
kept  indoors  when  there  was  a  cool 
and  shady  porch  and  a  comfortable 
hammock  awaiting  them.  He  felt 

o 

somewhat  aggrieved  over  it.  When 
Bob — the  general  factotum  of  the 
establishment — brought  up 
his  supper  and  set  the 
f  r  a  y  e  d  white  cloth 
over  the  table  Burton 
contemplated  making 
inquiries  as  to  the  oc 
cupants  of  the  house 
at  whose  blank  win 
dows  he  had  been 
38 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


gazing     for    the    better     part     of    an 
hour.       But    on    second     thought     he 
refrained  ;    there   was 
something  alluring-  in 

o  O 

the   thought   of   nurs 
ing  his  io-norance  ;  he 

o  o> 

could  give  his  fancy 
full  swing  and  make  of  the 
rose-filled  space  beyond  the 
iron  fence  an  Enchanted  Garden  and 
of  the  girl  in  white  an  imprisoned 
Princess.  The  idea  appealed  to  him, 
and  he  recalled  with  satisfaction  that 
the  voice  he  had  heard  calling  from 
the  house — that  is  to  say,  Castle — 
had  sounded  Blue  Beardish  to  a 
degree.  So  he  merely  sent  Bob  for 
a  fresh  syphon  of  soda  and  uncorked 
the  bottle  of  Scotch  whiskey  with  a 
thrill  of  something  approaching  ex 
citement. 

39 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

Burton  frequently  wondered,  when 
he  gazed  about  his  apartments,  why 
he  had  thought  it  necessary  to  rent 
two  rooms  from  Mrs.  Phillips.  So  far 
as  space  went  one  would  have  been 
quite  enough.  The  front  room  over 
looked  Kinof's  Street,  or  would  have 

o 

done  so  had  the  trees  which  grew  close 

o 

to  the  windows  allowed,  and  was  broad 
and  long  and  high,  with  white  walls 
and  ceiling  against  which  three  old 
yellow-stained  steel  engravings  looked 
lamentably  inadequate.  Even  the  big 
four-poster  bed  seemed  lost  in  the 
immensity  of  the  apartment.  The 
rear  room  was  more  cheerful.  It  was 
no  smaller  and  there  were  the  same 
glaringly  white  walls,  but  the  furnish 
ings  were  more  numerous  and  the 
adornments  more  ambitious.  Here 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


he  was  the  proud  possessor  of  six 
pictures,  a  framed  sampler,  three  ad 
vertising  calendars,  and  two  litho-^  f 

t  ST  L,  *  ^ .  ^V^^  5 

graphed  mottoes.  He  never 
tired  of  studying  the  sampler  ; 
its  artistic  effects  fascinated 
him  even  though  the  infor- 

o 

mation    conveyed    was    but 


slight 


A  b  c  d  e  f  g 
H  i  j  k  1  m  n 
O  p  q  r  s  t  u 
V  w  x  y  z  & 

ELIZABETH   R.  WARREN 
HER  WORK 

1827 


1838 


It  was  the  border  of  purple,  green, 
and  yellow  roses  that  awakened  his 
enthusiasm,  and  the  queer  little  some 
thing — which  micrht  have  been  an  hour- 

o  o 

41 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

glass  and  might  have  been  a  dress 
maker's  form — which  divided  the  dates 
at  the  bottom.  As  for  the  mottoes  he 
found  less  in  them  to  care  for.  "  Give 
Us  this  Day  our  Daily  Bread"  was 
hackneyed  and  incomplete,  while 
"  Dare  to  do  Right"  had  so  many 
violent  comparisons  of  color  that  none 
would  have  thought  of  paving  heed  to 

o  I       •>        o 

its  advice.  The  pictures  were  unin 
teresting,  a  few  depressing,  a  few  in 
excusable,  even  when  their  period  was 
taken  into  consideration.  Aside  from 
the  sampler,  the  most  artistic  of  the 
wall-decorations,  Burton  decided,  were 
the  three  calendars. 

The  furniture  was  all  of  it   o-ood,  if 

o 

somewhat  out  of  repair.  The  big 
lounge  was  of  mahogany  veneer  with 
a  high,  straight  back  of  such  delight- 


fe 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


solid 


fully  simple  lines  as  to  atone  for  the 
slippery,    inhospitable    horsehair   with 
which    it    was    uphol 
stered.      There    were 
some   good    chairs,   a 
folding    card-table,    a 

o  < 

swell- fr  on  t,     c  1  a  w- 

footed  lowboy,  and  a 
mahogany  desk,  beautiful 
enough  to  drive  a  man  to  theft.  The 
floor  was  polished  until  it  shone,  and 
over  it  were  scattered  four  rag  rugs 
whose  tones  of  gray  and  brown  or  gray 
and  blue  were  a  delight.  After  a  week 
of  practice  Burton  was  able  to  step 
upon  these  rugs  without  having  them 
slide  from  under  him.  But  he  never 
became  proud  and  careless,  and  this 
evening  as  he  carried  the  bottle  of 
Scotch  across  to  the  table  he  held  his 
breath  and  only  felt  quite  safe  when  he 

43 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


had  lowered  himself  carefully  into  his 
fiddle-back,  rush-bottomed  chair. 

The   table  was   placed    by  the   win 
dow    commanding    the     Castle,     and 
during      supper      he 
studied    speculatively 
the     pregnability    of 
the  place.     What  he 
saw     delighted     him. 
The  rose-vines  made 
it    possible    to   attain 
the   second-story  bal 
cony  with  a  minimum 
of     exertion.       With 
the   Princess  once  in 
his    arms—  He  paused   suddenly 

just  there  and  closed  his  eyes,  striv 
ing  with  a  pleasant  warmth  under 
the  pocket  of  his  negligee  shirt  to 
imagine  the  situation  thoroughly. 
With  the  Princess  in  his  arms  !  With 

44 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


those  wide  brown  eyes  just  under  his 
own  and  the  pearl-like  cheek  within 

reach He   shook    his   head 

t 

and     opened     his     own     eyes, 
which,  by  the  way,  were  steel- 
colored    and    not    brown,    and 
looked   across   the    two    gar 
dens  to  the  Castle. 

"  If  I  had  you  there,  Prin 
cess,"  he  murmured,    "I  very 
much  fear  we  would  never  escape 
from     the     Ogre.       We    should     be 
caught  like  rats  in  a  trap — I  think 
that's     the     correct     term,     though 

o 

hardly  complimentary  to  you — up 
there  on  the  balcony.  Personally, 
I  wouldn't  much  care  ;  with  those 
lips  of  yours  where  I  could  reach 
them,  my  dear,  the  Ogre  might  do  his 
worst  and  be  hanged  to  him  ;  but 
then  there's  you  to  think  of.  On  the 

45 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 

whole,  perhaps  it  would  be  best  if  I 
had  you  rescued  by  proxy.  There's 
Bob,  for  instance  !" 

He  smiled  broadly  at  the  thought 
and  refilled  his  glass. 

"  Once  down  from  the  balcony,  the 
rest  would  be  simple.  A  wild  flight 
through  the  rose-garden,  a  perilous 
surmounting1  of  the  iron  fence,  a  swift 

o 

rush  down  the  side  yard  here,  and 
then  a  trusty  steed  in  waiting, — you 
see,  my  dear,  an  automobile  would  be 
out  of  the  question  on  these  funny 
roads  of  yours, — and  the  wide  world 
before  us  !" 

He  lighted  a  cigarette  and  leaned 
out  over  the  casement.  The  evening 
shadows  were  blurring  tne  rose- 

o 

blooms,  and  high  overhead  a  half 
moon  was  sailing  out  of  a  bank  of 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 

fleecy  clouds.  The  Castle  showed  a 
solitary  light  in  the  window  beyond 
the  balcony.  He  blew  a  puff  of  smoke 
towards  it. 

"  Kitty — Kitty     of    the 
Roses,"     he      murmured,  1 
"  do  you  want  to  be  res 
cued,  dear  ?" 

From   the   house    came 
the  sound  of  a  girl's  voice 
in  song,  sweet,  caressing  ; 
he   could    not    distinguish 
the  words,   and   in   a  mo 
ment  the  voice  was  stilled. 
He     waited    and     listened,     but    the 
silence   held.     With  a  little   laugh  at 
himself,    Burton     arose    and    lighted 

O 

his  lamp. 

"I'm   afraid  you   don't,    my   dear," 
he  said.      "  You're  too  happy.      Don't 


47 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

you    know    that    real    Princesses    are 
never  happy  ?" 

He  lowered  the  shade  with  a  last 
look  into  the  darkened  garden  and 
resolutely  took  up  his  papers. 


Ill 

"  PUT  it  under  the  tree  in  the  cor 
ner,"  Burton  directed,  "  and  then  bring 
me  a  chair." 

"Mos'  pow'ful  warm  out  hyar,  sah," 
remonstrated  the  negro. 

"Warm?  Nonsense,  Robert !  Feel 
that  breeze  fresh  from  the  river.  Isn't 
that  cool  enough?" 

"  Ah  ain'  feelin'  no  breeze  ;  an'  any 
ways  it  doan  come  from  no  river,  sah  ; 
river's  over  that  a-ways." 

"  Robert,  I  fear  you're  deficient  in 
imagination,"  answered  Burton,  shak 
ing  his  head.  "  I  insist  that  there  is  a 
breeze  and  that  it  is  coming  from  the 

o 

4  49 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

river.  Geography  musn't  interfere 
with  imagination  ;  if  it  does,  why,  so 
much  the  worse  for  geography, 
Robert." 

"Yessah."      Having   set   table  and 

o 

chair  in  place,  Robert  retired,  only 
pausing  at  the  side  door  long  enough 
to  throw  a  last  dubious  glance  behind 
him.  ''He's  plum'  crazy,"  he  mut 
tered  with  a  shake  of  the  head. 

Burton  spread  his  papers  over  the 
table,  looked  to  pens  and  pencils, 
lighted  a  cigarette,  thrust  his  hands 
in  his  pockets,  and,  tilting  backward 
in  the  kitchen  chair,  surveyed  the 
scene  contentedly.  Above  him  the 
contorted  branches  of  the  Daphne- 
tree  spread  out  and  upward,  making 
a  leafy  canopy  through  which  the 
morning  sunlight  dripped  in  great, 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


golden  globules.  Birds  were  singing 
happily  in  the  garden  and  in  the  dense 
oaks  that  lined  the 
wide  street  beyond. 
To  his  right  was  the 
old  brick  wall  ;  be 
fore  him  ran  the  iron 
fence  through  which  yellow 
and  crimson  and  white  climb 
ing  roses  thrust  their  cool  green 
leaves  and  dew-sprinkled  blossoms. 
Beyond  was  the  Enchanted  Garden. 
Straight  before  him  ran  a  narrow, 

o 

red-gravel  walk,  box-walled  and  flower- 

O 

draped,  to  the  back  door  of  the  Castle. 
Burton  smiled  ;  he  was  highly  pleased 
with  his  generalship.  Yesterday's  po 
sition  was  commanding,  but  to-day's 
was  impregnable  !  He  took  up  a 
sketch-book  and  idly  turned  its  leaves, 
scanning  the  bold  pencil-strokes  that 
51 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 

reproduced  pillar  and  pediment,  cor 
nice  and  gable,  with  appreciative  eyes. 
Yet  he  was  not  so  much  absorbed  but 
that  he  heard  the  sound  of  an  opening 
door.  Keeping  his  head  bent  over 
his  book,  he  looked  towards  the 
Castle. 

On  the  steps  stood  the  girl.  She 
wore  the  same  white  muslin  gown 
with  the  lavender  ribbon  and  carried 
the  same  basket.  And,  as  yesterday, 
she  stood,  lithe  and  graceful,  on  the 
top  step  and  surveyed  the  riot  of  color 
before  her.  Yet,  ere  she  stepped 
down  to  the  gravel,  she  raised  her 

o 

eyes  in  a  fleeting  glance  towards  a 
certain  window  in  the  other  house. 
Burton  chuckled. 

"Ah,  Kitty,"  he  murmured,  "you're 
only  human,  after  all !" 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


She  took  the  farther  path,  a  choice 
he  applauded  silently,  since  she  would 
not  discover  him  until  she  turned  at 
the  bottom  of  the  garden, 
when  flight  with  dignity 
would  be  out  of  the 
question.  Now  and 
then  he  caught  fleet 
ing  glimpses  of  her 
hat  above  the  bushes, 
as  she  moved  along 
and  heard  the  clip 
ping  of  the  scissors. 
As  she  neared  the 
corner  he  dipped 
pen  in  ink  and  wrote 
industriously  : 

"BELLE  HARBOUR,  VIRGINIA,  June  3. 
"She's  coming;    she's   almost  in   sight.      I 
don't   quite   know   what   I   am   writing.      The 
situation  grows  intense.      Will   she   retreat  or 

53 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 

advance?  I  can  see  the  white  of  her  gown 
through  the  leaves.  She  is  almost  at  the  corner 
of  the  path.  My  courage  is  ebbing  fast  ;  if  she 
delays  much  longer,  I  shall  beat  a  disordered 
retreat  myself.  Xo\v  !  She's  coming,  coming, 
coming — she's  here.  .  .  .  ' 

The  girl  came  around  the  corner. 

She  was  humming  softly  to  herself 
and  swinging  her  basket.  Burton's 
head  was  bent  over  the  table.  She 
stopped  and  added  a  cluster  of  dam 
ask  roses  to  her  store.  \Yhen  she 
raised  her  head  her  eyes  sought  the 
window  that  had  harbored  the  foe  the 
previous  day  ;  it  was  empty.  Un 
doubtedly  she  was  vastly  relieved, 
even  if  her  countenance  didn't  ex 
press  it.  Alas  !  little  did  she  think 
that  the  enemy  was  entrenched 
almost  beside  her.  Unsuspectingly, 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


carelessly,  still  humming  her  little  air, 
she  drew  nearer  and  nearer  to  his 
position. 

Suddenly    the     humminor 

'  <J       '-J 

ceased  abruptly.    Burton's  heart 
gave  a  leap  and  he  brought  his 
artillery    into     action.        He 
raised  his  eyes  calmly — they 
belied  the  tumult  in  his  breast 
—and   gazed   with    polite   sur 
prise   into    hers.      She   returned   his 
look    with   one    expressive    of  amaze 
and — yes — appreciation  ;      ere     she 
turned    her    head    away    and    bent 
over  a  bush  the  ghost  of  a  smile,    a 
roguish     and     demure     smile,     crept 
around  her  mouth.     Then  the  abom 
inable  hat  hid  her. 

Burton  was  grateful  for  the  respite  ; 
his  forces  were  becoming  disorgan 
ized.  He  took  a  long  breath  and — 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

".  .  .  She  scorns  retreat  !  Despite  the  supe 
riority  of  my  position  I  cannot  congratulate 
myself  upon  having  had  the  advantage  in  the 
first  skirmish.  At  present  we  are  both  out  of 
action.  Had  I  the  courage  I  would  ask  for  a 
parley,  but  alas  !  I  am  already  wavering  along 
my  entire  line  ;  I  can  only  put  up  a  brave  front 
and  rely  upon  awing  her.  She  is  delicious, 
simply  delicious.  Her  eyes  .  .  .  I: 

Ah  !  what  heroism  !  "What  impu 
dent  daring  !  What  magnificent  bra 
very  !  The  girl  came  to  the  fence  just 
in  front  of  the  table — not  six  yards  dis 
tant! — and  calmly  snipped  two  bunches 
of  pink  roses  with  the  coolest,  most 
composed,  and  most  unconscious  air 
in  the  world  !  She  even  hummed  a 
little  !  Burton  stared  most  impolitely 
and  strove  to  think  of  something  to 
say.  "Good-morning  "  sounded  so  idi 
otic,  so  puerile  !  "  How  do  you  do?" 
56 


CALMLY    SNIPPED    TWO    BUNCHES    OP'    PINK    ROSES 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

was  out  of  the  question  !  To  ask  for 
a  rose  would  have  been  absolutely 
impertinent !  The  psychological  mo 
ment  passed  ;  the  girl  turned  away  ! 
Burton  sighed  regretfully  and  blamed 
his  faint-heartedness.  Up  the  centre 
path  she  went,  stooping  here  and 
there,  humming  more  assuredly  now 
— a  sweet,  dainty,  charming  figure. 
He  leaned  his  chin  in  his  palm  and 
gazed  his  fill.  The  basket  was  so 
laden  that  the  blossoms  spilled  upon 
the  path,  but  still  she  gathered  more. 
Burton  smiled  appreciatingly. 

"Yes,  yes,  I  understand,  my  dear," 
he  muttered  beneath  his  breath.  "In 
the  best  of  order ;  horse,  foot,  and 
artillery  intact  ;  such  a  retirement  is  a 
victory  !" 

At  the  foot  of  the  steps  she  paused 
and  deliberately  gazed  about  her  over 

57 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

the  wealth  of  leaf  and  bud  and  blos 
som.  But  she  did  not  bestow  a  glance 
upon  the  discomfited  enemy.  Then, 
gathering  her  skirts  daintily  about 
her,  she  tripped  up  the  steps  and 
entered  the  house.  With  the  closing 
of  the  door  Burton  sighed  a^ain.  He 

o  o 

lighted  a  fresh  cigarette  and  with  a 
whimsical  smile  read  what  he  had 
written.  Then  he  again  dipped  pen 
in  ink  and  wrote  : 

"  .  .  .  It  is  all  over  !  I  have  met  the  enemy 
and  I  am  hers  !  I  have  retained  my  position, 
but  at  what  a  cost  !  I  have  lost  my  heart  and 
my  self-possession ;  my  self-esteem  is  sorely 
wounded.  And,  alas,  I  glory  in  defeat  !  My 
only  regret  is  that  in  her  clemency  she  has 
refrained  from  taking  me  prisoner.  Ah,  Kitty 
of  the  Roses,  come  back  and  make  your  victory 
complete  ! ' ' 


r^—~ — 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

He  tossed  aside  the  pen,  placed  his 
hands    behind    his    head,    and    blew 
smoke-rings    up    into 
the  branches.    A  little 
wind   crept  in  gustily 
from    the    street    and 
fluttered    the    papers 
on  the  table.      Burton  took  his 
cio-arette  from  his   mouth   and 

£> 

pursed  his  lips. 

"How    did    it    go?"    he    muttered, 
strivino-  to  recall  and  re-render  the  air 

£> 

that  the  girl  had  been  humming.  But 
his  memory  failed  him  and  he  gave 
up  the  attempt.  A  stronger  breeze 
cauo-ht  up  the  paper  upon  which  he 
had  written  and  blew  it  to  the  grass 
beside  the  fence.  He  watched  it  laz 
ily  as  it  turned  over  and  over  until 
caught  by  the  iron  pickets.  Presently, 
he  told  himself,  he  would  rescue  it. 

59 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

Then     his     craze,    travelling:    beyond, 

O  £>  J 

caught  sight  of  a  cluster  of  scarlet 
roses  lying  upon  the  path  just  inside 
the  fence.  He  glanced  rapidly,  stealth 
ily,  towards  the  Castle.  There  was 
no  one  in  si^ht.  His  roaming  eves 

O  O  * 

fell  upon  his  cane.  The  next  mo 
ment  he  had  seized  it  and  was  thrust 
ing  it  between  the  pickets  of  the  fence, 
squatting  most  ungracefully  with  the 
mid-morning  sun  beating  remorse 
lessly  down  upon  his  back. 

The  cane  was  lonof  enough  for  his 

O  O 

purpose  and  its  crooked  handle 
seemed  fashioned  for  just  such  an 
emergency.  But  the  low  branches 
of  a  rose-bush  were  between  him  and 
the  prize,  and  every  time  he  tried  to 
drag  the  latter  towards  the  fence  they 
interposed  and  foiled  him.  The  leaves 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


of  the  Daphne-tree  rustled  in  the  gath 
ering  breeze  and  murmured  "Thief! 

O 

Thief!"     At  his  side  a  sheet   of     *,~ 
paper  escaped  from  the  pickets    £ 
and,  all   unseen,  bounded   mer 
rily  into   the  Enchanted  Garden. 
Burton's    face    grew    redder 
and    redder    and     the     sun 
seemed  resolved  on  burning 
his  back  through  the  light  shirt. 

o  o 

The  perspiration  gathered  on  his 
forehead  and  slipped  down  his 
straight,  long  nose  in  little  drops 
that  tickled  excruciatingly.  Again 
and  again  the  cluster  of  roses  was 
almost  within  reach  of  his  out 
stretched  brown  hand,  and  again  and 
again  the  faithful  branches  whipped 
it  back.  Burton  paused,  wiped  the 
drops  from  his  face,  viewed  the  some 
what  bedraggled  bunch  of  flowers 
61 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

exasperatedly,  and  summed  up  the 
situation  mildly  and  satisfactorily  in 
a  clearly  enunciated  and  temper- 
relieving  "  Damn  !" 

Then  he  poked  the  cane  again 
through  the  pickets  and  past  the 
branches.  And  then,— 

"Perhaps  I  can  help  you?"  said  a 
voice  almost  overhead. 

He  looked  up  into  the  amused 
brown  eyes  of  the  girl. 


THE  person  whose  self-possession 
fails  him  miserably  at  ordinary  junc 
tures  may  rise  superior  at  a  soul-dis 
turbing-  crisis.  Burton,  reel-faced,  per 
spiring,  conscious  of  the  sorry  figure 
he  presented,  arose  from  his  hands 
and  knees  with  brilliant  composure. 
A  glistening  drop  was  tickling  the 
side  of  his  nose,  yet  he  inclined  his 
head  politely  towards  the  pickets  ; 
innumerable  other  drops  were  creep 
ing  disturbingly  down  the  middle  of 
his  back,  yet  he  smiled  almost  blandly. 

"  Thank  you,  if  you  will  be  so  kind," 
he  said,  and  held  forth  his  hand. 
63 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

She  bent  gracefully  and  picked  up 
the  spray.  Then,— 

"  I  fear  they  are  rather  wilted,"  she 
said  with  polite  regret.  "There  are 
fresher  ones  on  your  side  of  the  fence, 
are  there  not  ?" 

Her  accent  was  delicious,  Burton 
thought  ;  soft,  creamy,  -  -  like  her 
cheeks, — filled  with  odd  little  drawls 
and  slurs.  He  hoped  she  would  go 
on.  But  she  didn't  ;  she  only  paused 
and  looked  questioningly  from  the 
withered  spray  of  roses  to  his  face. 
Her  expression  was  merely  one  of 
courteous  indifference,  of  polite  in 
terest  tinctured  with  reserve  ;  yet  in 
the  farther  depths  of  her  brown  eyes 
a  little  imp  of  mischief  danced  into 
sight  and  out  again. 

"The  roses  on  my  side  are  charm- 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


ingly  fresh,"  responded  Burton,  "but 
the  fact  is  I  have  a  desire  for  that 
especial  spray." 

"  Perhaps  because 
stolen  fruit  is  sweet- 
est  ?"  she  asked  ma 
liciously. 

"  Not    altogether     for     that 
reason,"    he    smiled.      "There 
are    certain    associations    connected 
with  it  that  endear  it." 

"  Indeed  ?"  She  held  it  gingerly 
by  the  extreme  tip  of  the  stem 
and  reached  towards  the  fence.  He 
accepted  it  gravely  and  thanked 
her. 

"  Please  don't,"  she  said  ;  "  I'm  not 
sure  that  I  am  not  compounding  a 
felony." 

"I'm  convinced  that  you  are  need 
lessly  alarmed,"  he  answered.  "  You 

5  65 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

have  only  presented  me  \vith  what 
was  yours  to  give." 

But  she  shook  her  head.  "  Oh,  no, 
not  at  all  !  I  discovered  you  steal 
ing" — this  with  awful  emphasis — "  my 
roses,  and  I  came  to  your  aid  merely 
because  I  feared  that  if  I  did  not  you 
would  have  a  sunstroke." 

"  Stealing  is  an  unpleasant  word," 
he  said  tentatively.  "  Couldn't  you 
substitute  borrowing?" 

"  Borrowing  ?"      The  brown    eves 

o  - 

opened  very  wide.  "  But  I  don't  be 
lieve  it  would  be  true." 

"I    crive     vou    my    word,"    he    an- 

O  -•  •• 

swered  earnestly,  "  that  I  will  return 
these  to  you  as  soon  as  I  am  done 
with  them." 

She  leaned  forward  and  plucked  a 
withered  leaf  from  a  bush  to  hide  the 
smile  that  trembled  about  her  lips. 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


"Have  you  —  have  you  any  idea 
when  that  will  be?"  she  asked. 

"  Indeed,   yes,  I  can   tell  you 
to  a  minute  !" 

"  Can  you  ?" 

"  You  shall  have  them 
back  the  very  instant  you 
give  me  some  fresh  ones." 

"  Oh  !"     She  was  still  hunt 
ing  for  withered  leaves.      "  Are  you 
going  to  press  them,  then  ?" 

Burton   acknowledged  the  louche 

o 

with  a  smile. 

"  I  had  entertained  hopes  that  you, 
with  such  a  fabulous  wealth  of  blos 
soms,  would  be  charitable  to  one  who 
has  none,"  he  replied  gravely. 

"  Charity  is  only  for  the  deserving." 
She  gave  up  her  search  and  faced  him 
again.  "  TJiieves  are  not  worthy  sub 
jects." 

67 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


"  But  a  little  charity  might  have  the 
effect  of  reforming  them.  For  ex- 

o 

ample,  if  you  were  to 
present  me  each  morn 
ing  with  a  rose,  there 

o 

would  remain  no  ne 
cessity  for  stealing- " 

J  O 

She  shook  her  head   again. 
"  Reform  should  come  through 
repentance  ;     that    would    be    merely 
bribery." 

"  But  in  extreme  cases,"  he  pleaded, 
"  shouldn't  we  consider  the  end  rather 
than  the  means  ?  Xow,  with  such  a 
hardened,  desperate  criminal  as  my 
self " 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right,"  she  ac 
knowledged.  "  And  so  you  have  per 
mission  to  help  yourself  to  a  cluster 
of  roses  every  day.  You  can  reach 
them,  you  see,  without  trouble." 
68 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


"  Oh !"  he  said  disappointedly. 
"  But  I  shouldn't  want  to  do  that ; 
I  fear  I  would  damage  the 
bushes." 

"  Not  if  you  used  scissors." 

He     made     a     pretence     of 
searching  his  pockets. 

"  I'm  afraid  I  haven't  such 
a  thing,"  he  said  despond 
ently. 

"  I'm  sure  Mrs.  Phillips  will  lend 
you  a  pair." 

"  You    are     taking     an      entirely 
wrong  course  with  me,"  he  said  sadly. 
"  I  feel  that  I  shall  never  reform  with 
out  some  assistance  ;  I  haven't  enough 
moral   courage.      Now,    if  you   would 
take  a  little   interest  in   my  case — to 
the  extent   of  one  rose,  just  a   single, 
solitary  rose  now  and  then,  you  know 
— I'm    sure  I  could  lead  a  better   life. 
69 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 

Don't  you  think  that  —  er  —  you 
could  ?" 

A  sheet  of  paper  danced  out  to 
the  path  at  her  feet  and  she  stooped 
and  picked  it  up,  crumpling  it  in  her 
hand. 

"I'm  afraid  not,"  she  said. 

She  dropped  the  crumpled  paper 
into  her  basket  and  moved  off  up  the 
path.  Then  she  paused  and  turned. 

"  Good-morning."  She  gave  a 
polite  little  inclination  of  her  head 
and  Burton  removed  his  hat. 

"Good-morning,"  he  answered  de 
jectedly. 

She  went  on  towards  the  house, 
humming  softly.  He  watched  until 
the  door  had  closed  behind  her  ;  then 
he  threw  himself  in  his  chair  aofain 

o 

and    looked    smilingly   at    the    faded, 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 


bedraggled    cluster    of   tiny    crimson 
roses  in  his  hand. 

"  She's  wonderful," 
he     said     under     hisri^ 
breath.    "She's  a  real 
Princess,    after    all,    a 
little     five-foot-two      Princess, 
with  the   most   beautiful   eyes 
in    the   world   and    the    clearest    red 
lips  and  the  pearliest,  softest  cheeks 
ever  woman  had  !      She's  older  than 
I   thought  ;    she   must   be   twenty-one 
or  two.     I  wonder — but,  no,  she's  not 
married  ;   she's  just   a   girl — a   sweet, 
womanly  girl." 

He  placed  a  cigarette  between  his 
lips  but  forgot  to  light  it. 

"  Kitty,"     he     murmured,     "  Kitty, 

Kitty  of  the  Roses  !    Never  was  there 

a  name  that  fitted  as  that  does  ;  she 

could  have  had  no  other  name  !    Maud 

71 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

— Alice — Mary — Lilian  —  Florence— 
none  would  have  suited  her  ;  Kitty 
was  made  for  her  !  It  never  struck 
me  before  as  being  a  beautiful  name 
— Kitty.  I  wonder  why?  It's  abso 
lutely  musical!  It's  a  poem,  a  love- 
song  !  It's- — 

He  sat  up  very  straight  and  scowled 
at  the  littered  table. 

"  Great  Scott !  this  won't  do  !  These 
Enchanted  Gardens  are  dangerous 
places  ;  they  evidently  affect  the 
brain." 

He  rescued  his  pen  from  the  grass 
and  clipped  it  into  the  ink. 

"  Or  maybe  the  heart  !" 

He  drew  his  sheets  before  him  and 
smoothed  and  arranged  them.  Then 
he  frowned  intently.  Presently  he  be 
gan  to  write  : 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

"The  crowning  of  these  columns  with  the 
Roman  Doric  abacus  is  quite  unjustifiable  and 
altogether  incongruous  to  the  purist.  Yet  the 
effect  in  the  eye  of  the  layman  is  not  unpleas- 
ing.  It  is  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  ac 
count ' 

He  looked  up  from  the  sheet  before 
him  with  exultant  eyes,  the  pen  poised 
motionless  in  mid-air. 

"  I'll  swear  there  were  dimples 
when  she  smiled  !"  he  murmured  joy 
ously. 


THERE  had  been  a  shower  in  the 
gray  of  the  morning  ;  Burton  remem 
bered  hearing  the  brisk  patter  of  the 
falling  drops  against  the  sounding 
magnolia  leaves  while  the  open  case 
ment  was  still  but  an  oblong  of  gray- 
black  in  the  surrounding  darkness  ; 
and  now,  at  nine  o'clock,  the  garden 

o> 

was    still    moist    in    the   sunlight   and 

o 

dripping  in  shadow.  The  Daphne- 
tree  was  gloriously  fresh,  the  honey- 
flowers  were  drenched  in  crystal  drops, 
and  the  bees,  moving  hoverintrlv  from 

O  O     J 

spray  to  spray,  were  in  constant  danger 
of  shower-baths.  Across  the  fence  the 

74 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


roses  were  laughing  as  the  sun,  fiercely 
solicitous,  dried  leaf  and  bloom.  The 
hedges  were  festooned  with  glis 
tening  webs  of  silver  and  spun, 
crlass  in  which  o-ems  trembled 

o  o 

and     scintillated.       The     fallen 
petals,    rain-beaten,    strewed 
beds    and    paths    and    were 
washed  here   and   there   into 
tiny  ridges  of  pale  colors  like 
the  rim  of  an  artist's  palette.     And 
the  air,   renewed  and   refreshed,   was 
fragrant  with  the  mingled  odors  of 
the  blossoms  and  moist  loam. 

Even  Burton's  table  beneath  the 
Daphne-tree  showed  evidences  of  the 
recent  shower,  for  the  painted  top  was 
spotted  with  tiny  pools  in  which  the 
greenery  overhead  was  dimly  reflected. 
Burton  moved  it  into  the  sunshine, 
tipped  it  until  the  emerald  pools 

75 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

trickled  off,  and  left  it  there  to  dry 
while  he  lighted  a  cigarette  and,  be- 

£>  o 

tween  inhalations,  cast  casual  glances 
over  the  rose-bushes  at  the  neigh 
boring  door.  But  the  door  remained 
closed.  A  second  cigarette  followed 
the  first.  The  table  was  quite  dry  by 
now,  but  Burton  seemed  to  have  for 
gotten  its  existence  while  he  strolled 
to  and  fro  along  the  path  beside  the 
house.  Once  he  glanced  at  his  watch 

O 

a  trifle  impatiently  ;  it  was  after  nine- 
thirty.  He  shook  his  head  disapprov 
ingly  ;  the  Princess  was  late.  Didn't 
she  know,  he  wondered,  that  punctu 
ality  was  a  virtue  in  Princesses  as  well 
as  in  others  ?  Besides,  it  was  orowin<r 

O  O 

very  warm  and  she  was  keeping  him 
from  his  work.  Then  he  had  the  grace 
to  blush  mentally  as  he  remembered 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


••• 


the  two  pencils  and  the  block  of  paper 
in  his  coat  pocket  which,   while  they 
might    give    the     ap 
pearance     of     labor, 
were  intended  merely 

as    a    cloak    for    idle-    ' 

*Hb.'-^i 
ness.       He      rescued 

the  table  from  the  sun,  which 
already  showed  a  disposition 
to  blister  the  yellow  painted  top, 
and  laid  his  pad  and  pencils  upon 
it  with  a  great  show  of  importance. 
He  had  forgotten  the  chair,  so  he 
went  to  the  back  door  and  requi 
sitioned  one  from  the  kitchen.  Bob, 
wearing  a  long  blue-checked  apron 
which  impeded  his  progress  by  winding 
its  folds  about  his  thin  shanks,  ap 
peared  presently — Burton  had  been 
in  Belle  Harbour  long  enough  to  cease 
expecting  immediate  results — and  set 

77 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

a  kitchen  chair  before  the  table.     Bur 
ton  shook  his  head. 

"  Xo,  Robert,  the  other  side,  if  you 
please,"  he  said.      "Your  tastes  may 
run  towards  brick  walls  and   Daphne- 
trees,   but   mine  prefer   roses 
and     enchantment.       The 
other  side,  Robert." 
^^^H       "  Yessah,  ve'y  well,  sail." 
Bob  had  given  up  attempt 
ing  to  understand  Burton, 
and     had     philosophically 
decided  to  pay  no  heed  to 
his  vagaries  save  to  humor 
them    whenever     possible 
and  so  earn  as  many  as  he  might  of  the 
silver  coins  with  which  the  Northerner's 
pockets  seemed  to  be  filled.    He  placed 
the  chair  with  its  back  to  the  Daphne- 
tree,  wiped  the  seat  of  it  with  the  end 
of  his  apron  and  grinned  inquiringly. 
78 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 


"Robert,"  said  Burton,  "I  presume 
that  you  agree  with  me  in  holding-  the 
lack  of  punctuality  to  be  one  of 
the  deadliest  of  the  deadly  v\ 
sins  ?" 

Bob   scratched   his  head   and 
appeared    to    be    giving   the 
matter  serious  consideration. 
But    as    he    made    no    reply 
Burton     continued,     accepting 
silence  for  consent. 

"  It  seems  to  me,  Robert,  that  tardi 
ness    in    plain,    ordinary    every-day 
mortals    like   you   and   me   may  be 
forgiven  ;    I    hope    so   for   your    sake  ; 
but  a  Princess  — I  may  say  tJie  Prin 
cess  ! — Eh  ?    You  see  the  difference  ?" 

"  Yessah, "  said  Bob  explosively. 

"  Of  course,"  Burton  went  on,  seat 
ing  himself  in  the  chair  and  with  cliffi- 

o 

culty  getting  his   knees    beneath   the 

79 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


table,    "  of   course,   living-    in    an    En 
chanted  Castle  it  may  be  that  one  is 
not  at  liberty  to  come 
and    ifo    as    we    are, 

o 

Robert.      You    follow 
me,  I  trust  ?" 

"  Y-yessah  !" 

"Thank  you.      I  realize  that 
there  are  times   when    my   re 
marks   possess  a  certain   involution, 
as  you  might  say,  which  persons  with 
less    penetration     than    you,    Robert, 
might  find  confusing.      It  pleases  me 
that   vou    so    thoroughly    understand 

*  o       -- 

my  remarks  ;  your  sympathetic  atti 
tude  arouses  my  gratitude.  That  pos 
sibly  sounds  to  your  finely-trained 
ear  like  poetry,  Robert,  but  I  assure 
you  that  nothing  of  the  sort  was 
intended.  So  far  I  have  not  reached 
the  condition  when  poetry  becomes 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


necessary     for     the      expression     of 
thought.       When     I    do     reach     that 

o 

phase    of   the    malady — for    love 
has    been    not    inaptly    termed  ^ 
a    malady,    you'll    remember — 
when    I   do,    I    say,    your    ears 
shall  be  the  first  to  listen  to 
my  rhymed  periods  ;    that   I 
promise      you.        But  —  no, 
thanks,  I  beg  of  you  !" 

The    request     seemed    unneces 
sary,   for  Bob's   countenance  was   ex 
pressive    of    other    emotions     than 
gratitude,    chief  of  which,    perhaps, 
was    bewilderment.       He     rolled    his 
eyes   towards   the   kitchen   door,   and 
his     settled     orin — the     sort    of    irrin 

c!>  <^> 

with  which   one   might   strive  to  pla 
cate    a    dangerous    lunatic — held    a 

o 

trace    of    uneasiness.       But     Burton, 
leaning  with  his  elbows  on  the  table 
6  81 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

and  levelling  a  drawing  pencil  at 
him,  held  him  captive  to  his  will. 

"Robert,"  he  asked,  "have  you 
ever  seen  a  Princess  ?" 

"  X-no,  sah  ;  leastways,  sah,  not  to 
know  it." 

"Ah,"  said  Burton  with  a  shake  of 
his  head,  "that's  it!  'Xot  to  know  it!' 
Perhaps,  Robert,  you  have  met  your 
Princess  without  recognizing  her,  have 
passed  her  on  the  street,  at  the  mar 
ket,  in — Robert !" 

"Sari?" 

"  How  about  cook  ?  You  don't 
think  that  possibly — er — she  might 
be  your  Princess  ?" 

"  \Yho,  sah?  Lavinia,  sah?  Ah 
reckon  yo'  makin'  fun.  Mister  Burton. 
Why,  she  ain'  no  Princess,  sah  ;  she's 
jes'  one  dem  no  'count  Xo'th  Ca'lina 
niggers  !" 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 


Burton  nodded  gravely. 

"  Perhaps  you  are  right.  Never 
theless,  Robert,  Princesses  move  in 
strange  disguises,  I 
have  no  doubt.  Un 
fortunately,  I  am  un 
able  to  acquaint  you 
with  any  certain 
method  of  detecting 
Of  course,  if  she  lives  in  a 
Castle  and  picks  roses  in  an  En 
chanted  Garden  you  know  at  once 
that  she  is  a  Princess  ;  that  is  sim 
plicity  itself.  Also,  if  she  has  beau 
tiful  soft  brown  eyes  and — and  dim 
ples—  He  snapped  his  fingers 
triumphantly  and  Bob  started  in 
alarm.  "We  have  it,  Robert!  Re 
joice  !" 

"  Yessah,  yessah  !" 

"  That,  Robert,  is  the  secret !    Dim- 
83 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

pies  !  Look  for  dimples  !  All  Prin 
cesses  have  dimples.  Aren't  you 
awfully  glad  I  thought  of  that  ?  When 
you  go  back,  Robert,  observe  Lavinia 
closely.  If  she  has  dimples  "  —he 
spread  his  hands  wide — "there  you 
are,  you  have  found  your  Princess  !" 

"Ah  reckon  th'  won't  be  no  dim 
ples,  Mister  Burton,"  said  Bob  lugu 
briously.  "Ah  reckon  she'll  jes' 
natu'ally  snatch  me  bald-headed,  sah, 
for  not  comin'  back  an'  wipin'  de 
dishes." 

Burton  shook  his  head  sorrowfully. 

"  You  pain  me,  Robert.  All  the 
time  you  have  stayed  here  keeping 
me  from  my  work  you  have  been 
neglecting  your  own  labors.  That  is 
not  right.  Return  at  once  to  the 
kitchen  and  the  Princess  Lavinia.  Not 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


a  word  !     I  refuse  to  listen  any  longer 
to  your  chatter." 

"  Yessah,"  said  Bob  eagerly. 

^  .   ^ 

"Thank'  y',  sah.      Anythin'  Ah 
can  git  you,  sah  ?" 

"  Nothing,     Robert.       Do 
not    attempt  to    disarm    my 
resentment ;     I     am      disap 
pointed      in      you."        Burton 
waved   him    away.     When   he   had 
gone,    Burton    lighted   a    third 
ette,    stretched   his   arms   overhead, 
yawned   inelegantly   and — suddenly 
sat  up  very  straight  and  attentive  in 
the  chair. 

From  across  the  nodding  roses, 
from  an  open  window  of  the  Castle, 
floated  again  a  girl's  sweet,  fresh 
voice  in  song.  Burton's  heart  leaped 
and  he  tried  to  still  his  breathing-  that 

O 

he  might  hear  the  better,  the  while  he 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 

searched  eagerly  with  his  gaze  the 
windows  of  the  house  beyond  the 
rose-garden. 

o 

"  O  Paradise,  O  Paradise,  the  world  is  growing 

old: 
Who  would  not  be  at  rest  and  free  where  love 

is  never  cold  ? 
Where  loyal  hearts  and  true  stand  ever  in  the 

light, 
All  rapture  thro'  and  thro'  in  God's  most  holy 

sight?" 

The  words  of  the  hymn  died  softly 
away  and  silence  held  the  Castle  again, 
a  peaceful  silence  that  now  held  for 
Burton  a  new  significance.  After  a 

o 

few  moments  he  gathered  his  pencils 
and  paper  together  and  arose.  The 
hymn  had  recalled  to  his  mind  a  fact 
which  he  had  lost  sight  of, — namely, 
that  to-day  was  Sunday.  And  he 
knew  enough  of  Belle  Harbour  and 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


its  customs  to  be  sure  that,  even 
should  he  wait  there  in  the  garden  all 
day  long,  he  would 

not  be   rewarded  with  <x 

;  ; .......  \ 

a  glimpse  of  the  Prin-  &jfa 

V^'A^K        v' 

cess.     At  the  door  of 

k>, 
the   house   he    turned 

and  looked  again  over  the  en 
chanting    scene.      Beyond    the 
iron    fence   the   roses    drowsed 
nodded     sleepily,    the    yuccas    gently 
swung;    their    bells,    the    leaves    cast 

O 

flickering  shadows  on  the  reel  gravel 
paths,  and  the  bees  droned.  The 
magnolia  had  already  begun  to  spread 
its  mellow  gloom  over  the  garden  and 
from  its  depths  a  yellow-breasted 
songster,  half  seen  like  a  speck  of 
molten  golel  between  the  moving 
leaves,  gushed  its  soul  into  song.  But 
for  the  rest,  silence  and  emptiness. 
87 


"I  WONDER,"  mused  Burton,  "  if  it 
ever  rained  in  the  Garden  of  Eden. 
And,  if  it  did,  I  wonder  if  Adam  was 
as  bored  as  I  am  now.  Of  course  he, 
lucky  beggar,  had  Eve,  while  I — my 
Garden  of  Eden  is  Eveless.  Come 
to  think  of  it,  though, — "  and  he 
smiled  for  the  first  time  since  he  had 
lifted  his  head  from  the  pillow  to  see 
the  rain  streaming  relentlessly  from  a 
leaden  sky — "  come  to  think  of  it  Eve 
and  I  would  cut  rather  sorry  figures 
out  there  in  that  dripping  Eden.  She, 
of  course,  would  wear  a  little  gray 
rain  coat  and  a  felt  hat,  while  I  would 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


have  to  appear  in  rubber  coat  and 
sou'wester.  And  we'd  each  have  to 
wear  rubbers  and,  perhaps,  carry 
umbrellas.  It  doesn't  sound 
romantic.  Not  that  Kitty  of 
the  Roses  wouldn't  be  abso 
lutely  charming  in  a  rain 
coat,  or  that  I  am  anything 
short  of  distinguished  in  that 
absurd  garment  of  black  rub 
ber,  only — well,  it  would  test  our 
tempers  as  well  as  our  powers  of 
entertainment  to  have  to  sit  out 
there  with  our  backs  to  a  box  hedge 
—probably  quite  well  stocked  with 
spielers  and  assorted  bugs — for  any 
length  of  time.  It  must  be  difficult  to 

o 

talk  well  when  a  raindrop  is  hanging 
from  the  end  of  your  nose  and  your 
cheek  is  plastered  with  wet  rose  petals. 
I'm  sure  that  at  the  end  of  half  an 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


hour  Kitty  would  detest  me  cordially 
and    I    would — but     no,    my    dear,    I 
couldn't     detest     you 
under    anv   circum- 

j 

stances.    If  you'll  only 
make     your     appear 
ance    through    that 
aggravating    back     door    over 
there  I'll  fly  to  your  side  and 
sit  contentedly  on  the  sharpest  picket 
of  the  fence  as  long  as  you'll  stay  in 
sight." 

"It  isn't  as  though  I  couldn't  see 
her  if  I  wanted  to  take  extreme 
measures,"  he  went  on.  "  If  I  liked  I 
could  P;O  this  minute  to  the  front  door 

o 

of  the  Castle  and  ask  for  her.  She 
might  refuse  to  speak  to  me  when  she 
discovered  who  I  was,  but,  at  least,  I 
would  have  had  the  satisfaction  of 


seeing  her  again." 


90 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


The  thought  seemed  to  bring"  him 
a  degree  of  comfort,  for  his  face,  which 
since  rising  had  been  as  cloudy  , 
as  the  sky,  lighted  somewhat, 
and  he  blew  cigarette  smoke 
out  into  the  rain  with  new 
gusto. 

"  But    she    wouldn't    like 
it ;    not  a  bit  of  it.      And  so 
I'll    worry  through    this    beast 

J  O 

of  a  day  as  well  as  I  can,  and  to 
morrow — to-morrow  the  sun  will  shine 
again,    those    sorry-looking    flowers 
will    raise    their    heads    once    more 
and  Kitty,  Kitty  of  the  Roses,  will  snip 
them   off  with    her    shears.       Happy, 
thrice  blessed  flowers  !" 

Suddenly  his  countenance  fell  again 
and  his  cigarette  dangled  disconso 
lately  from  drooping  lips. 

"  I  wonder  though  if  she'll  put  in  an 
91 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


appearance  to-morrow  !  Perhaps  she 
thought  me  impertinent,  a  bit  of  a 
bounder !  Perhaps  she'll  keep  out 
of  my  way  !  Perhaps — but  she  can't 
do  that  altogether,  else  what 

O 

would  become  of  the 
roses  ?  She  must  come 
into  the  garden,  and  if 
she  comes  into  the  o-ar- 

O 

den  I  shall  see  her.  And 
I'll  behave  very,  very 
well,  oh,  perfectly  !  And 
she'll  say  to  herself,  'Poor 
fellow,  his  manners  are 
really  quite  nice — for  a 
Northerner.  And  he  seems  rather 
harmless.  I  think  I'll  be  kind  to  him.' 
And  everything  will  be  lovely  !  " 

Cheered  by  his  prophecies,  he  drew 
the  table  as  near  to  the  open  window 
as  the  spattering  raindrops  permitted 
92 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 

and  resolutely  took  up  his  pen.  For 
the  first  half-hour  his  raze  was  more 

o 

often  on  the  door  of  the  neighboring 
house  than  on  his  task.  But  after 
that  the  work — a  paper  on  "  Early 
Colonial  Architecture  in  the  South  "  to 
be  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Society 
of  Architects — progressed  finely,  while 
the  rain  beat  ceaselessly  upon  trees 
and  shrubs  and  pat,  pattered  on  the 
window-sill  at  his  elbow. 

By  bedtime  he  had  written  the  final 
word.  After  he  had  blown  out  his 
lamp  he  went  to  the  window  over 
looking  the  Enchanted  Garden.  The 

o 

back  of  the  Castle  was  in  darkness, 
but  the  rain  had  ceased,  the  dripping 
roses  were  scenting  the  night  with 
their  perfume  and,  high  overhead,  the 
moon  peeped  wanly  through  a  rift  in 
the  clouds. 


VII 

"THEY  are   looking   well  after  the 

o 

rain,"  he  suggested  interrogatively. 
She  had  shown  no  disposition  to  avoid 
him,  in  fact,  her  rather  distant  incli 
nation  of  the  head  had  preceded  his 
own  bow  by  a  flattering  fraction  of  a 
second. 

"Yes,"   she    agreed,   without,   how- 

o 

ever,  pausing  in  her  task  of  filling 
her  basket  with  great  long-stemmed 
blooms.  Burton  left  the  table  and 
leaned  over  the  fence. 

"  On     a    day    like    yesterday    one 
rather  wishes  oneself  a  rose-bush  or 

94 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 


tree   or  something  equally  inanimate, 
don't  you  think  ?" 

"  I  don't  think  I 
ever  have,"  she  an 
swered.  "Why 
should  one  ?" 

"  Perhaps  you  are  one  of 
those  unnaturally  cheerful  per 
sons  who  like  rainy  days,"  he  said. 
"  For  my  part,  I  can't  bear  them. 
Yesterday,  for  instance,  I  was  awfully 
bored.  I  think  I  must  have  stood  at 
my  window  up  there  lor  all  of  an 
hour  looking  down  here  and  wishing- 
for  the  sight  of"  --he  suddenly  recol 
lected  his  resolve  to  be  on  his  good 
behavior — "of  a  human  bein^.  It 

o 

was  a  beast  of  a  day  !" 

"You  didn't  look  happy,  that  is 
true,"  she  said,  bending  to  rescue 
a  fallen  clump  of  flaring-  red  Luxem- 
bourgs. 

95 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

"Then  you  saw  me?"  he  asked 
eagerly. 

"Why  not?  You  stood  in  full 
sio-ht  at  your  window." 

o  * 

"  But — but  I  didn't  see  you,"  he 
answered  aggrievedly.  She  shook  her 
head. 

"  You  couldn't;  I  was  in  the  kitchen 
making  cake." 

"Really?"  From  his  tone  one 
would  have  thought  the  making  of 
cake  a  wonderful  and  quite  unprece 
dented  performance. 

"Really,"  she  mocked  smilingly. 

"What — what  kind?"  He  sought 
desperately  in  his  mind  for  knowledge 
on  the  subject.  "Gingerbread?" 

"  Chocolate  layer  cake,"  she  an 
swered. 

"  Oh  !"  he  sighed  ecstatically. 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


"Do  you  like  it?"  she  asked, 
touched,  perchance,  by  the  pathos  of 
his  tone. 

"  Worship  it !"  he  assured 
her.  "I  suppose  you — er — I 
suppose  you  haven't  any  left?" 

"I   think  there  is    some," 
she    answered,     striving-    to 
control  the  quivering-  corners 
of  her  delicious  mouth.     "Are 
you  hungry  ?" 

"Awfully,"  he  sighed.  "Will  you 
take  pity  on  me  ?" 

"  I  think  you  want  a  great  deal. 
Yesterday  it  was  roses,   to-day  cake. 
I  wonder  what  it  will   be  to-morrow?" 

It  was  hard  work  keeping  back  the 
"You  !"  that  rushed  to  his  lips.  But 
she  had  acknowledged  the  possibility 
of  their  meeting  again  on  the  morrow, 
nay,  had  practically  suggested  it  as 

7  97 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


though  it  were  a  matter  of  course,  and 
he  took  heart  from  that. 

"  I'll  say  no  more  about  the  cake," 
he  said  insinuatingly,  "  if  you'll  give 
me  the  roses." 

"  But  I'm  not  sure  I  wouldn't 
rather  give  you  the  cake,"  she  replied 
thoughtfully.  "  You  see,  the  roses 
mean  more  to  me."  Her  eyes  ranged 
slowly,  lovingly  over  the  garden.  The 
shadow  of  her  hat  cast  a  warmer  tone 
over  one  clear,  creamy  cheek,  and 
Burton's  heart  thumped  im 
moderately. 

"They  would  mean 
more,  much  more,  to  me, 
too,"  he  said  softly,  and 
his  voice  was  not  quite 
even.  Perhaps  she 
caught  his  meaning  ;  at 
least  the  shadowed 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


cheek  found  new  color,  and  she  made 
a  little  movement  as  though  to  go  on 
her  way   up  the  path 
towards     the     house. 
But  —  and      perhaps,     %j 
after  all,  she  was  not 
altogether    displeased 
— she  only  bent  her  warm  face 
over  a  tempting  spray  of  golden 
blossoms,  and  Burton,  who  had  noted 
the   impulse    toward    flight,    went    on 
hurriedly  : 

"  One  hears  so  much,  and  rightly, 
of  Southern  hospitality,"  he  said,  "  that 
certainly  I  am  not  mistaken  in  think 
ing  you  will  give  me,  out  of  your 
vast  wealth,  one  little  rose  a  day?" 

"  You  wouldn't  rather  have  the 
cake?"  she  asked,  raising  her  head 
and  viewing  him  quite  calmly. 

"  No,  the  rose,  if  you  please." 

9Q 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

"  But  it  was  delicious  cake,"  she 
went  on  musingly.  "  It  was  really  the 

O    *  j 

best  I  ever  made,  and  Aunt  Amanda 
says  I  make  yery  good  cake." 

"  I  could  neyer  doubt  that,"  he  an 
swered  gallantly. 

"  It  was  yery  high,  and  it  had  four 
layers  of  lovely  chocolate  cream  filling 
and  lots  and  lots  of  chocolate  icin^f 

o 

on  top.  Don't  you  like  chocolate 
icing  ?" 

"  Awfully,  but  I  like  roses — some 
roses — far  more." 

"Oh!  But  —  eyery  day?  Don't 
you  think  that's  rather  often  ?  Fresh 
roses  will  easily  last  three  days  with 
out  wiltinof,  and  if  I  ^rave  you  one  this 

O  £>  -- 

mornine  it  outfit  to  do  until — let  me 

O  <J> 

see" — she   counted  the    tips  of   three 

gloved   fingers — "why,    until   Thurs- 

i      i" 
day  ! 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 


But  he  shook  his  head  with  decision. 

"  It  must  be  one  a  day." 

"  Must?"  she  repeated  with  a  tinge 
of  emphasis   and   a   slight   lifting 
of  her  brows. 

"  Pardon     me,      sJiould     was 
what  I   meant  to   say.      I    shall 
soon    begin   to    think  you   a 
miser.       Perhaps    if    I    look 
out    into    the    garden    some 
moonlight     night    I    shall    see 
you    here   counting    your   roses,    as 
a  miser  counts  his  gold." 

She     smiled    at    the     picture    he 
drew.      Then,    tossing    some    loose 
petals  from  her   hand  with  a  gesture 
of  surrender,— 

"  Very  well,"  she  said,  "  you  shall 
have  your  one  rose  a  clay  while  you're 
here.  I  reckon  it  won't  impoverish 
me,  for  no  one  never  stays  in  Belle 

101 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

Harbour  very  lono-  at  a  time — unless 

J  O 

one  lives  here." 

He  thought  there  was  just  a  sug 
gestion  of  interrogation  in  the  remark. 

"  Don't  be  too  sure  of  that,"  he  re 
plied.  "I  came  down  here  for  a  fort 
night,  but  I  shan't  promise  to  go  at 
the  end  of  that  period.  You  see,  in 
New  York  I  am  not  presented  each 
day  with  a  rose." 

"  You  must  be  very  fortunate  to  be 
able  to  make  your  business  affairs  sec 
ondary  to  your  whims,"  she  said  a 
little  unkindly. 

"  I  am  very  fortunate,"  he  answered 
simply. 

"  But  to  stay  here  in  our  poor  little 
shabby  town  just  for  a  handful  of 
roses  ?"  she  persisted.  "  It  sounds 
rather  silly,  doesn't  it?" 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 

"  Have  I  said,"  he  asked  gently,  a 
smile  hovering  under  his  moustache, 
"  that  it  was  altogether  the  roses  ? 
When  you  are  tired  of  having  me 
come  a-begging  to  your  garden  fence 
send — send  Aunt  Amanda  out  with 
my  rose." 

She  laughed  softly  and   caught   up 
the  skirt  of  her  white  gown  in 
the  hand  that  held  the  scis 
sors. 

"I  will  remember,"  she 
said.     "  Good  morning." 

"But     my     rose?"     he 
cried  in  dismay. 

"To-morrow,"  she  an 
swered     mockingly,      "  if 
Aunt    Amanda    is    not    too 
busy." 

She   nodded   and   moved 
away  towards   the   house. 
103 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


Burton     gazed     ruefully    after    her 
until   the   door   had   hidden   her   from 
his    sio-ht.       Then    he 

O 

.  went  back  to  his  chair 
under     the     Daphne- 
tree,      clasped      his 
h  a  n  d  s     b  e  h  i  n  d     his 
head,    tilted    back    and    sighed 

O 

ecstatically. 

Five  minutes  passed  ;  ten  ;  twenty. 
A  lark  high  up  in  the  magnolia-tree 
sang  his  shrill  and  florid  melody  to 
unheeding  ears.  The  sun  crept 
higher  and  higher  until  the  shadow 
of  the  Daphne-tree  reached  the  edge 
of  the  grass-plot.  The  bees  rose 
and  fell  above  the  blossoms  on  in 
visible  wings  and  humming-birds 
darted  and  poised  along  the  tangle 
of  honey-flowers. 

Suddenly      Burton's      chair      came 

104 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


down   with  a  thud   and   he   sat  erect, 
a  frown  on  his  brow. 

"  \Yere  there,"  he  mur- 
mured,  "or  were  there  not 
dimples  ?" 

"I    think    I    must    be    re 
pentant,"    he    said    the    next 
morning".     "I've  been  feeling 
strangely    happy    of    late — in 
fact,   ever  since  I   saw  you   coming 
out  of  the  house." 

"Your  repentance  is  not  ot  very 
lone  standing,"  she  scoffed. 

O  O 

"  I  )on't  discourage  me,  please  !  Five 
minutes  of  time  may  be  of  little  conse 
quence,  but  five  minutes  of  happiness 
is  so  uncommon  as  to  be  priceless." 

"You    are     unfortunate,"    she    an 
swered  gravely.    "I  should  be  thankful, 
I    suppose,    that  my  happiness  is   not 
reckoned  by  minutes." 
105 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

"  Unberufen  !"  he  cried. 

"  Unberufen  !"  she  echoed.  Then 
their  glances  met  and  they  laughed 
together.  He  saw  with  relief  that  the 
dimples  were  not  mere  creations  of 
his  imagination  ;  they  were  there, 
appearing  and  disappearing  on  the 
clear,  soft  cheeks.  He  held  a  withered 
spray  of  roses  across  the  fence. 

"You  are  prepared  to  fulfil  your 
promise?"  he  asked. 

"Are  you  sure  I  promised?" 

"Absolutely!" 

' '  I  said  perhaps. 

"  Impossible  !  Do  you  imagine 
that  I  would  have  crot  out  of  bed  at 

£> 

six  o'clock  this  morning,  bolted  my 
breakfast,  and  waited  here  under  this 
absurd  tree  for  nearly  an  hour  and  a 
half  unless  I  had  been  certain  of  the 
reward  ?" 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


"Really?  But  you  don't  look 
hungry." 

"I'm    starved — for   • 
roses;  absolutely  fam- 
ishing  !" 

"  How  awful  !"   she 
exclaimed  in  awe-struck  tones. 
"Wait,  then." 

She  turned  and  looked  about  her 
over  the  laden  branches. 

"Does  your  hunger  demand  any 
especial  kind  or  color  of  rose  ?" 

"  It  does  ;  it  cries  aloud  for  a  large 
pink  rose  with  one  or  two  crushed 
petals." 

"What  a  strange  appetite  you 
have  !  I'm  afraid  I  can't  see  one  just 
filling  those  requirements."  She 
creased  her  forehead  and  looked  the 
garden  over. 

"  May  I  help  you  ?  "   he  askecl. 
107 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

"  I  wish  you  would." 

"  Then  I  will  respectfully  suggest 
that  the  rose  you  wear  exactly  fits  the 
description.  In  fact,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  it  appears  to  have  been 
fashioned  with  that  end  in  view." 

He    met    her    glance   with    one   of 

o 

serene  and  self-satisfied  composure. 
Her  eyes  dropped  to  the  blossom  in 
question  and  she  lifted  it  and  exam 
ined  it  carefully. 

"  It  is  strange,"  she  mused.     "Here 

o 

are  the  crushed  petals  and  all."  He 
held  out  his  hand.  "  But,  then,  there 
are  larger  roses  and  pinker  ones, 
beyond  doubt,  and  as  for  crushed 
petals — why,  they  are  easily  made." 
She  moved  towards  a  bush  of  im 
mense  cabbage-roses  and  put  forth 
her  scissors. 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


"  One  moment !"  he  cried.  She 
turned,  mutely  questioning. 

"Appetites,"     he     went 
plausibly,  "are  capricious  things 
—mine  especially.      Having 
once  set  itself  upon  a  certain 
thing  it  rejects  all  others,  no 
matter  how  similar  in  outward 
appearance  they  may  be.      My 
ger    craves    the    rose     you    wear, 
throw    myself — and     my     hunger — 
upon   your   mercy  !      Be   generous 
You  see  before  you  a  starving  man 

She  turned  back  with  a  little  gesture 
of  despair  and  slowly,  hesitatingly, 
cletatched  the  blossom  from  her  gown. 

"  Of  course  I  can't  refuse  a  starving 
man,"  she  said. 

"  It  would  be  quite  impossible,"  he 
answered. 

"And  so" — she  stretched  the  pink 
109 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


blossom  out  to  him  and  he  seized  it 
greedily  across  the  fence — "I  shall 
take  credit  to  myself 
for  having-  saved 
your  life,"  she 
said  soberly. 

"  Please  do  so 
every  minute  of 
the  day,"  he 
begged.  "And 

now "      He 

held    forth    the 
withered      spray 
he   had    received 
the    day    before. 
But    she     shook 
her  head. 
"  I    have  so  many  fresh   ones,   you 
see." 

"  But  it  was  a  part  of  the  bargain  !" 
he  pleaded. 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

"  Was  it  ?"  She  accepted  the  limp 
cluster  of  faded  blooms,  viewed  it 
carelessly,  and  dropped  it  to  the  path, 
where  it  lay,  a  pathetic  symbol  of 
Beauty's  perishableness. 

"  Kitty,"  he  said  to  himself,  "you're 
a  minx,  a  dear,  charming  little  minx  !" 

o 

"  Please  tell  me,"  he  said  aloud, 
"  what  you  do  with  yourself  all  the 
rest  of  the  time  ?" 

She  looked  across  questioningly. 

"After  you  leave  the  garden,  I 
mean.  I  see  you  for  a  minute  or  two 
and  then  you  utterly  disappear  and 
never  come  back — until  the  next 
morning.  Do  you  live  in  a  real 
house  ?  Is  there  a  front  door  to  it  ? 
Or  is  it  an  enchanted  palace  ?  If  I 
searched,  could  I  find  it,  or  would 
folks  merely  look  at  me  compassion 
ately  and  shake  their  heads  if  I  asked 


KITTY  OB^    THE    ROSES 


them   to   direct   me  to   the   Castle  of 
the  Roses  ?" 

"  O  h,  I'm  s  u  r  e 
they'd  shake  their 
heads,"  she  lauehed, 

O 

"  if  you  asked  for 
that.  But  there  is  a  front  door." 
"  And  if  I  were  to  come  to  it 
and  ask — ask  for  the  Princess— 

"  Aunt  Amanda  would  send  you 
away  in  short  order.  You  see,  she 
doesn't  consider  me  exactly  as  a  prin 
cess." 

"Then  whom  would  you  advise  me 
to  ask  for  ?" 

"  Nobody." 

"  Oh  !  But — if  I  should  get  some 
one  to  bring  me  ?" 

"That  might  be  different,  I  reckon. 
Perhaps  then  Aunt  Amanda  would  let 
you  in." 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 


"And  the  Ogre  ?     I  would  not  be 
eaten  alive  ?" 

"The     Ogre?"     she     asked, 
puzzled. 

"  Yes  ;    I   heard   him    call 
ing  you  one  morning." 

"Oh,"  she  laughed,    "the 
!     Well,  now  as  for  the 
-     But  you'd  have  to 


Oore- 


risk  the  Ogre." 

o 

"  I  will  !"   he   exclaimed  with  de 
cision.       "  Only Perhaps      you 

know    a    Colonel     Barrett    here    in 
Belle  Harbour  ?" 

"Barrett?"  She  shot  a  sudden 
glance  of  surprise.  "What  is  his 
first  name  ?" 

"I — really,  I  don't  remember.  A 
friend  in  Baltimore  insisted  upon  giv 
ing  me  a  letter  of  introduction  to  him. 
I  don't  fancy  them  much,  you  see,  and 

8  113 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

so  I've  never  presented  it.  But  now 
— if  you  think — that  is,  you  know,  if 
Colonel  Barrett  knows  the  Ogre — or 
Aunt  Amanda — "  He  paused  sug 
gestively. 

"  There  is  a  Colonel  Robert  Barrett 
here,"  she  said,  "and  I've  met  him. 
And  I  think" — she  was  smiling  as 

O 

though  the  mention  of  the  Colonel's 
name  evoked  humorous  recollections 
— '•  I  think  he  knows  the  Ogre." 

o 

"  Really  ?"  he  cried.  "  Then  I  must 
find  him  out.  \Yhen  you  come  to  think 
of  it  now,  a  letter  of  introduction  is 
something  that  shouldn't  be  neglected, 
should  it  ?" 

"  I  never  had  one,"  she  replied  de 
murely.  Then,  catching  sight  of  the 
neglected  basket  of  roses,  "  Oh,  just 
see,"  she  exclaimed  remorsefully, 
"they're  all  withering  !" 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


"Not  enough  to  hurt,"  he  said. 
"  Besides,  there  are  lots  more." 

But  she  shook  her 
head  and,  with  the 
basket  over  one  arm 
and  scissors  and 
skirts  in  hand,  turned 
towards  the  house. 

"  Good-morning,"  she  said. 

"  Oh,  but  wait." 

"Well?" 

He  searched  desperately  for  some 
thing  to  say,  anything  to  keep  her 
there.  Finally, — 

"They're  looking  well,  are'nt  they, 
the  roses  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes." 

"  But — er — perhaps  they  need  rain  ? 
Roses  require  a  good  bit  of  moisture, 
don't  they  ?  I  think  I've  read  some 
where  that — er — that " 

115 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

"  Good-morning-."  She  turned  away 
again,  smiling  deliciously  when  her 
back  was  towards  him,  and  went 
quickly  up  the  path. 

"  Goocl-mornintr"   he  called  reoret- 

o  o 

fully.      Then  : 

"  Confound  it,  I  did  read  something 
about  roses  and  moisture  somewhere  ! 
Now,  what  was  it?  Just  like  my  silly 
memory  to  go  back  on  me  when  most 
needed  !  I  shall  read  up  on  roses  ; 
everyone  ought  to  know  about 
flowers." 

He  gathered  up  his  papers  and 
writing  utensils  and  went  up  to  his 
room.  There  he  placed  the  pink  rose 
in  a  o-oblet  of  water  and,  in  the  man- 

o 

ner  of  one  performing  a   sacred  rite, 

pressed  his  lips  to  the  crushed  petals. 

"  This  afternoon,"   he  said,    "  I  will 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


present     my    letter     to     the     worthy 
Colonel." 

But    he    didn't,    for  with    the 
afternoon     came     a     telegram 
from     New    York    calling    him 
back.     For   a  few  moments 
he  railed  eloquently  at  fate  : 
in    the   end   he   accepted   her 
command  with  ill  grace  :    "I  am 
leaving  my  trunk,    Mrs.  Phillips,"   he 
explained  to   his  landlady,    "in  order 
that  I  may  return  and  get  it  later. 
Meanwhile   I   shall   be   glad  to  retain 
the  rooms.     I  shall  be  back  in  a  week 
or  ten  clays,  I  fancy." 

During  the  operation  of  packing  a 
suit-case  he  made  trips  to  the  window 
overlooking  the  rose-garden  at  fre 
quent  intervals,  but  without  reward. 
The  back  of  the  Castle  presented  a 
sleepy,  undisturbed  aspect,  and  the 
117 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


garden  was  empty  of  all  life  save  birds 
and  bees  and  butterflies.     Just  before 
it  was   time   to   leave 
for  his  train  he  went 
^  down  to  the  iron  fence 
and     looked     mourn 
fully  across. 

"  Kitty,"     he    whispered    to 
the  drowsing1  leaves  and  bios- 

O 

soms,     "  Kitty    of    the     Roses,     I'm 

j 

coming    back    to    you,    clear,    just    as 
soon  as  the  Lord  will  let  me." 

Suddenly  he  remembered  the  with 
ered  spray  of  roses  that  she  had 
dropped  to  the  path,  and  a  desire  to 
repossess  it  took  hold  of  him.  His 
cane  was  in  his  hand  and  he  knew  just 
where  they  had  fallen.  He  leaned 
over  the  tops  of  the  pickets  and 
reached  forward.  Then  he  stopped. 

The  roses  were  gone. 
118 


VIII 


BURTON  returned  to  Belle  Harbour 
and  King's  Street  just  two  weeks  later 
to  a  day.  It  was  dusk  when  he  stepped 
on  the  station  platform,  and  starlit 
darkness  when,  followed  by  a  tattered 
and  grinning  little  clarky  bearing  his 
luggage,  he  reached  his  lodgings.  His 
first  act  was  to  throw  open  the  bowed 
shutters  and  look  out  upon  the  En 
chanted  Garden.  It  was  a  dark  ex 
panse  of  bush  and  hedge,  with  here 
and  there  an  uncertain  fleck  of  gray 
where  the  wan  light  from  the  sky 
caught  a  white  blossom.  Beyond,  the 
house  was  empty  of  light.  Something 
1 19 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

—what  he  scarcely  knew --in  the 
aspect  of  house  and  garden  oppressed 
him  ;  had  he  believed  in  premonitions 
he  would  have  accepted  that  as  one 
of  ill  augury.  He  turned 
away  with  a  shrug  of 
^  impatience  and  lighted 
fe  his  lamp. 

In  the  morning  he 

o 

leaped    out    of    bed 
and   again    thrust 
aside  the  blinds.    His 
heart  sank.    The  En 
chanted     Garden     was 
still   below  him  ;    but   it 
looked  unmistakably  neg 
lected    and     uninhabited.        Most    of 
the  roses  were  through  blooming  for 

O  O 

the  while  and  what  blossoms  there 
were  seemed  faded  and  imperfect. 
The  blinds  in  the  rear  of  the  Castle 


KITTY  OF    THE   HOSES 


were  all  tightly  closed  ;  the  hammock 
was  gone  from  the  porch  ;  the  vines 
looked  dusty.  In  a  sudden  panic 
of  alarm  Burton  strode  to  the 
hall  and  called  loudly  for  Bob. 

"  Have  those  people  in 
that  house  over  there  gone 
away?"  he  demanded  when 
the  darky  appeared. 

"Which  house  is  dat,  sail  ?" 

"  There,  icliot — beyond  the  rose- 
garden  !  Have  they  gone  ?" 

"  Oh,   yessah  ;    they    gone  ;    been 
gone  a  week,  I  reckon." 

Burton  sat  down  on  the  edge  of  the 
bed  and  groaned.  Then, — 

O 

"Where?"  he  demanded.  Bob 
shook  his  head  : 

"I  clunno,  sah;  somewhars  up  No'th. 
The  Colonel  he  al'ays  goes  No'th  in 
summer." 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

"  The  Colonel  ?" 

"  Yessah,  Colonel  Barrett.  Wasn't 
you  askin'  about " 

"  Barrett  /"  Burton  seized  Bob  by 
the  arm  and  dragged  him  to  the  case 
ment.  "  Look  here,"  he  said  desper 
ately,  "  do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that 
Colonel  Barrett  lives  in  that  house, 
the  one  with  the  rose-garden  behind 

O 

it?" 

"  Y-yessah,  I  surely  does,  sah." 

"  You're  not  mistaken  ?" 

"No,  sah;  why,  I  knows  the  Colonel 
well  !" 

"Then  why  didn't  you  tell  me  this 
before,  you  fool  mcwer  ?  Why  didn't 

J  OO  -• 

you     tell    me    Colonel    Barrett    lived 
there  ?" 

"  Yo'  didn't  ask  me  !" 

"  Oh,   get    out    of   here  !"    groaned 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 


Burton.     "  Hold  on,  though.     Has  the 
Colonel  a  daughter?" 

"  No,   sah,    he    am'   -o- 
never  got  mahied." 

"Then—  cried    ^.; 

Burton    in    sudden 
hope. 

"He  got  a  niece,  though." 

"  Oh  !  So  she's  his  niece  ?  What's 
her  name  ?" 

"  Name's  Miss  Kitty." 

"  I  know  that,"  said  the  other  im 
patiently.  "What's  the  rest  of  it?" 

"Ah  ain'  never  heard  no  mo'." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  she 
has  no  last  name  ?" 

"  Oh,  las  name  !  I  didn't  know 
you  meant  las  name,  sah.  Las'  name's 
Fletcher,  o'  co'se  !" 

"That' sail.     Get  out !" 

Bob  departed  to  tell   the  cook  that 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 

"  Mister  Burton  he  done  wen'  crazy," 
and  the  subject  of  the  announcement 
remained  for  many  minutes  sitting  on 
the  bed  in  his  pajamas  gazing  out  into 
the  Enchanted  Garden  and  mentally 
heaping  maledictions  upon  himself. 
The  thought  of  the  letter  of  introduc 
tion  in  his  trunk  was  maddening.  It 
was  all  very  plain  now  ;  no  wonder 
she  had  smiled  when  he  had  asked 
about  the  Colonel  ! 

"  Oh  Kitty,  Kitty !"  he  muttered, 
"you're  the  cruel  one  !" 

After  breakfast  he  packed  his  trunk 
hurriedly  and  then,  armed  with  the 
letter,  sallied  forth.  Down  King's 
Street  he  went  to  the  first  corner ; 
here  a  half-obliterated  si^n,  nailed 

o 

against  the  trunk  of  a  giant  oak,  bore 
the  legend  "Mary  Street;"  he  counted 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


the  houses  and  chose  the  third  one. 
Emptiness   was   written    all    over    its 
sleepy,  red-brick  front.      Nevertheless 
he   knocked,    and   waited. 
After    many  minutes    the 
door    was     opened     cau 
tiously  and    an    aged   ne- 
gress — he   was    certain   it 
was  Aunt  Amanda — stuck 
her     head      through      the 

o 

narrow  aperture. 

"Is  Colonel   Barrett  at 
home?"   asked  Burton. 

"  No,   sah,   he  gone  up 
No'th." 

"Impossible!"       e  x- 
claimed    Burton,    simulat 
ing     intense     surprise     and     dismay. 
"  I   have   a   letter   of   introduction    to 
him.      Can  you  tell   me  where  he  has 
gone  ?" 

125 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


"New  Yo'k." 

"  And  the  address  there  ?" 

"  Can'  tell  yo'  that, 
sah  ;    reckon,   though, 
'  New   Yo'k'   will 
fin'  him." 

"But    isn't    there 
anyone  here  in  town   that  can 
give  me  his  address?" 
"  Don'  reckon  so." 
"But    his    mail,    where    does     that 
go?" 

"  Folkses  at  the  pos'-office  lookin' 
arter  that,  sah." 

"Oh  !  And  is  Miss  Fletcher  with 
him  ?" 

"  Yessah." 

"Thank  you.  I  think  I  will  leave 
my  card.  Will  you  kindly  see  that 
he  gets  it  when  he  returns  ?" 

Burton  tried  the  post-office  without, 
126 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


however,  much  hope  of  success.  And, 
as  he  had  expected,  the  post-mistress, 
an  elderly  lady  with  an  extremely  ^-j 
suspicious  expression  about  K 
her  thin  lips,  refused  to  divulge 
any  information. 

"  It's  a  rule  of  the  De 
partment,"  she  explained 
severely. 

That     evening-     Burton     re 
turned  to  Xew  York  without  having 
obtained  any  more  explicit  directions 
than  those  given  by  Aunt  Amanda. 
But   he  was   not  hopeless.      Surely, 
he   assured   himself,   it  would   not  be 
difficult   to  discover  the  whereabouts 
of  the  Colonel  and  his  niece  so  long- 

O 

as  hotel  registers  were  open  to  pub 
lic  inspection. 

But  at  the  end  of  two  days  he  had 
At  the  end  of  the 

127 


changed  his  mind. 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

third  he  gave  up  the  search.  New 
York  had  swallowed  the  Princess  and 
the  Ogre  !  Burton  returned  to  his 
affairs,  which  had  besnm  to  suffer, 

o 

and  strove,  for  their  good,  to  banish 
thoughts  of  Belle  Harbour  and  the 
Enchanted  Garden  and  Kitty  of  the 
Roses  from  his  mind.  But  the  task 
he  had  set  himself  was  a  difficult  one ; 
and  just  when  it  seemed  that  he  was 
arriving  at  some  decree  of  success, 

O  O 

lo  !  a  prankish  Fate  interposed. 

It  was  well  into  July.  New  York 
had  been  sweltering  all  day  under  hot, 
cloudless  skies,  and  even  the  dark 
ness  brought  no  relief.  To  stay  in 
doors  was  out  of  the  question,  and 
so  Burton  dragged  himself  from  an 
already  deserted  club  after  a  late  din 
ner  and  hailed  a  hansom. 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


"  Drive     around,"     he     directed, — 
"any  old  place  so  long  as  it's  cool." 

Cabby    turned    the 
horse's  head  up-town 
and     it     trotted     list- 
lessly  along  over  the 
still    heated     asphalt. 
Burton  leaned  forward  to  catch 
what  air  there  was  and  smoked 
and   meditated.     For   some   reason — 
perhaps  it  was  a  glimpse  of  a  florist's 
window  that  did  it — his  thoughts  flew 
southward  to  a  Garden  of  roses  and  to 

o 

a  small,  graceful  figure  that  walked 
therein.  Fagged  by  the  heat  of  the 
long  day,  he  had  no  strength  left  with 
which  to  combat  temptation,  and  he 
yielded.  It  came  back  to  him  very 
vividly  ;  closing  his  eyes  he  saw  the 
garden  and  the  blank,  drowsy  old 
house  ;  he  saw  the  door  beside  the 
9  129 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 

rose-vines  open  and  a  white-gowned 
figure  trip  down  the  steps.  She  came 
nearer  and  nearer,  smiling,  happy- 
eyed,  the  broad  brim  of  her  hat  lift 
ing  in  the  breeze  and  chasing  the 
edge  of  the  mellow  shadow  over  her 
cheek.  Never  before  had  her  face 
come  back  to  him  so  clearly.  In 
the  length  of  ei^ht  blocks  he  lived 

o  o 

over  those  precious  mornings  min 
ute  by  minute.  In  the  middle  of 
the  ninth  he  was  suffering  all  the 
torments  of  a  despairing  lover  of 
twenty.  He  hurled  the  dead  cigar 
from  his  lips  to  the  pavement  and 
thrust  up  the  trap  with  his  cane. 

"This  won't  do,"  he  muttered  sav 
agely  ;  and  aloud,  "  Stop  here  ;  I've 
had  enough." 

O 

On     the    curb    he    found    himself 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 


bathed  in  the  bright  glare  of  many 
lights  ;  he  had  landed  at  the  entrance 
of  an  uptow-n  theatre.  With  a 
shrug  of  his  shoulders  he  went 
in.  "  As  well  here  as  any 
where,"  he  thought.  Of  the 
entertainment  he  recalled 
but  little  the  next  clay.  But 
the  theatre  was  fairly  cool 
and  the  music  bright  and  emi 
nently  cheerful.  When  the  final 
curtain  had  descended  he  joined  the 
pushing  throng  at  the  right  of  the 
house.  Half-way  towards  the  en 
trance  his  eyes,  ranging  carelessly 
over  the  scene,  were  suddenly  arrested 
and  his  heart  leaped.  Across  the 
rows  of  empty  seats,  at  the  far  side  of 
the  theatre,  a  man  and  a  girl  were 
slowly  making  their  way  towards  the 
door.  The  man  was  tall,  thin,  with 
131 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


grizzled  hair  and  moustache,  Southern- 
looking  from  head  to  heel,  and  about 
fifty  years  of  age. 
The  girl  was  slight 
and  rather  small,  with 
brown  hair  and  warm 


skin     hued     like     the 
inner  petals   of  a   rose.      She 
was  plainly  dressed  in  a  street 
skirt  of  gray  and  a  white  shirt-waist 
against  which  three  or  four  pink  roses 
drooped.      In  short,  it  was  Kitty — and 
the  Ogre  ! 

Burton  looked  about  him  desper 
ately.  The  only  course  open  was  to 
remain  in  the  aisle  where  he  was  and 
trust  to  reaching  the  lobby  in  time  to 
intercept  them.  He  took  advantage 
of  every  cranny  and  crevice  in  the 
throngr  and  pushed  his  wav  through 

O  1  *  O 

with  slight  regard  for  toes  or  skirts. 

o  o 

132 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


It  seemed  hours  before  he  reached 
the  entrance.  Now  and  then  he  was 
able  to  catch  sight  of  his  quarry  . 
over  the  shoulders  of  the  • 

••v  .     *• 

throng-.      It    was    while    so    en 
gaged    that    he    heard    an    elo 
quent  sound  of  rending  silk 
and      felt      himself      seized 
roughly    by    the    arm.       He 
turned    to    face    an    indignant 

£> 

cavalier. 

"  Sir,  you  are  very  awkward  !     You 
should  look  where  you   are  going  ! 
You  have  torn  this  lady's  dress  !" 

"I  am  very  sorry,"  replied  Burton, 
striving  to  wrest  himself  from  the 
other's  clutch.  "  Believe  me,  Madam, 
I  am  deeply  grieved  and — er —  I 

beg   of  you,    sir,    don't    detain    me  ;   I 
am     trying    to     reach     some     friends 

who " 

133 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

"  Deuce  take  your  friends,  sir ! 
Your  clumsiness " 

But  Burton  wrenched  himself  free 
and  plunged  into  the  lobby,  followed 

1  <;!>  s 

by  muttered  execrations  from  those 
whom  he  unceremoniously  thrust  from 
his  path.  But  the  delay  had  cost  him 
dear.  The  Princess  and  the  Ogre 
were  not  to  be  seen.  He  rushed  to 
the  street  cloor  just  in  time  to  catch 
a  fleeting  crlimpse  of  a  ^rav  skirt  dis- 

O      O  1  O          *- 

appearing  into  a  brougham. 

"  Kitty  !"  he  called,  and  struggled 
across  the  sidewalk. 

The  door  closed,  the  driver  snapped 
his  lash,  and  the  carriao-e  rolled  away. 

O  ^ 

And  yet  for  an  instant  he  was  certain 
a  face  had  looked  from  the  window 
and  a  hand  had  rested  upon  the  sill. 
He  hailed  a  hansom. 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


"  Keep  that  brougham  in  sight," 
he  said  hurriedly.  "There's  a  five- 
dollar  bill  in  it  if  you  do  !"  With  one 
foot  on  the  step  he  paused,  stooped, 
and  lifted  something  from  the  asphalt. 

It  was  a  pink  rose. 

The  driver's  task  was  not  a  hard 
one.  The  brougham  went  northward 
slowly  for  a  few  blocks  and  then 
turned  to  the  west  down  a  quiet  side 
street.  Presently  Burton's  convey 
ance  stopped. 

"All  right,  sir," 
said  the  driver. 

The  brougham 
had  paused  some 
dozen  doors  be 
yond  and  its  pas- 
senders  were 

<^y 

aliLrhtiiiLT.       Burton 

o  o 

descended,       dis- 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


<v~ 


missed  his  cab,  and  keeping  the  house 
into  which  the  Princess  and  the  Ogre 
had     disappeared     in 
>  sight,  walked  leisurely 
>  towards  it.     It  proved 
to  be  a  small,  unpre- 

^.  '•  ;  • 

tentious,    but    attrac 
tive   hotel.     When   he  entered 
the  hall  was  empty  save  for  a 
clerk,  behind  the  tiny  desk,   and  a 
negro  elevator  boy. 

"  Is   Colonel    Barrett,    of    Virginia, 

o 

staying  here?"  Burton  asked. 

"Yes,  sir.  Will  you  send  up  your 
card  ?" 

Burton  hesitated  ;  then  shook  his 
head. 

"  No,  I  think  I'll  wait  until  morning  ; 

o 

I  presume  they  have  retired  ?" 

"Did  Colonel  Barrett  and  the  young 
lady  go  to  their  room,  Billy  ?"  the  clerk 

136 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


inquired.  The  elevator  boy  nodded 
sleepily.  Burton  turned  away  and 
walked  homeward  through  the  breath- 

o 

less  streets  with  a  tri 
umphant  joy  and 
a  fragrant  pink 
rose  for  compan 
ions.  To-morrow 
h  e  w  o  u  1  cl  see 
Kitty,  his  Kitty, 
Kitty  of  the 
Roses  ! 

He   went    to  his 
office    early    the    fol 
lowing-  morning,   and   at  ten    o'clock, 
summoning    a    hansom,    had    himself 

O 

driven  to  a  florist's.  There  he  pur 
chased  two  dozen  and  one  roses  and 
personally  superintended  the  packing 
and  dispatching  of  them.  His  selection 
may  have  struck  the  attendant  as 
137 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 

somewhat  unique,  consisting,  as  it 
did,  of  a  dozen  white  blossoms,  a  dozen 
pink  ones,  and  a  single  half-blown  bud 
of  deep  crimson  ;  but  Burton,  remem 
bering  Kitty's  wont,  thought  she  would 
understand.  After  the  flowers  had 
been  sent  he  hesitated  a  moment  on 
the  curb.  In  the  end  he  sent  the  cab 
away.  He  did  not  want  to  present 
himself  at  the  hotel  before  eleven  ;  the 
thought  of  sitting  inactive  in  a  club 
window  was  distasteful ;  he  would  walk 
slowly  uptown.  So  he  crossed  to  the 
Avenue  and,  lighting  a  fresh  cigarette, 
idled  from  window  to  window  in  a  des 
perate  attempt  to  kill  time.  He  allowed 
no  display  on  the  shady  side  of  the 
street  to  pass  unexamined.  and  by  the 
time  he  had  reached  his  northerly  goal 
his  brain  was  a  kaleidoscope  of  sport- 


KITTY   OF   THE    ROSES 


ing  prints,  French  landscapes,  jewelry, 
silk  stockings,  bric-a-brac,  lingerie,  and 
smokers'  articles.  But  it  was.  > 
eleven  o'clock  ! 

This  time  there  was   no  pre 
monition     of     disappointment 
He    sought     the    desk    and 
produced  his  card. 

"  Sorry,   but    Colonel    Bar 
rett  and  his  niece  left  ten   minu 
ago  for  the  steamer,"  said  the  clerk. 

o 

"Steamer!"      gasped        Burton. 
"  What  steamer  ?" 

"  I'll  find  out  for  you  in  a  minute 
from  the  porter."  He  disappeared, 
leaving  Burton  leaning  against  the 
desk  staring  blankly  out  onto  the  sun- 
smitten  pavement.  In  a  moment  he 
returned. 

"  Trunks  went  to  the  American  Line 
pier,  sir." 

139 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


"Thank    you,"     Burton     muttered. 
Then,   turning   suddenly  at  the   door 
way,    "  What   time    is 
the  sailing  ?" 

o 

"  Half  after  twelve, 
sir,  I  believe." 

Burton  glanced  at 
his  watch,  compared  it  with 
the  smu^-faced  clock  over  the 

••     ^Sr 

desk,  and  strode  to  the  steps.  But 
again  he  turned  : 

"  I  sent  a  box  of  flowers  here  for  the 
young  lady  this  morning  ;  did  she  get 
them  ?" 

"  Xo,  sir,  they  came  just  after  she'd 
left.  They're  here  ;  I  was  going  to 
send  them  back  to  the  florist's." 

That  was  a  wild  race  against  time  ! 
With  the  long  box  of  roses  between 
his  knees,  one  hand  on  his  watch,  and 
a  cigarette  hanging  unlighted  from  his 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

lips,  Burton  sat  like  a  stern-faced  Fate 
and  was  whirled  from  the  hotel  to  the 
wharf  in  what  was  practically  one  long 
bump.  When  the  horse  was  pulled 
back  on  his  haunches  before  the  pier 
entrance  there  was  no  need  to  ask 
questions  :  a  stream  of  persons  whose 
handkerchiefs  still  huno"  from  their 

o 

hands  was  emerging  into  the  hot  sun 
light. 

With  a  groan  Burton  threw  himself 
back  against  the  cushions. 

"  Never    before   in    the    history   of 
ocean    travel   has   a    steamship 
left    on    time,"    he    muttered. 

"  But  to-day — oh,  damn  !" 

"  Where      to,      sir  ?" 
asked    the    driver,   his 
red,    perspiring     face 
glowing     above     the 
opened  trap.     Burton 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 

gulped,  and  then  gave  his  office  ad 
dress.  The  wearied  horse  and  creak 
ing  hansom  crept  dejectedly  uptown 
again  through  close,  furnace-like 
streets  and  over  pavements  that 
threw  the  heat  upward  with  intoler 
able  intensity.  Burton  thought  of 
the  open,  wind-swept  ocean  and 
cursed  weakly.  When  the  hansom 
came  to  a  stop  in  front  of  the  narrow, 
white-marble  monstrosity  on  the  tenth 
floor  of  which  was  his  office,  he  paid 
three  prices  to  the  driver  and  strode 
towards  the  entrance.  The  cabman 
called  after  him,— 

"  Hi,  sir,  you've  forgotten  your 
flowers  !" 

Burton  turned  and  scowled  fero 
ciously. 

"I     don't    want    them,"     he    said. 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

"Throw  them  away — take  them  home 
— eat  them — anything  /" 

But  cabby,  being  a  person  of  busi 
ness  principles,  did  none  of  these 
things :  he  sold  them  at  the  next 
corner  to  a  sidewalk  vender  for  fifty 
cents. 


IX 

IT  was  June  once  more. 

Burton  had  been  in  Washington  for 

two   days  ;    it   was   Tuesday   evening 

'  ••  O 

now  and  his  business  was  at  last  com 
pleted.  He  had  earned  a  yacation,  he 
told  himself,  and  he  meant  to  take  it. 
Washington  was  maintaining  its  repu 
tation  for  torridness,  and  when  at  the 
lunch-table  an  acquaintance  had  pic 
tured  a  mile  of  cool  green  wayes 
breaking-  on  the  shingle  at  Virginia 

o  o  ft> 

Beach  and  had  likened  the  sea-breezes 
there  to  a  million  electric  fans.  Burton 
had  made  up  his  mind  on  the  instant. 
He  would  take  the  nicrht  boat  for 

o 

144 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 

Hampton  and  spend  the  morrow  by 

salt    water ;    the   thought  of   cleavino- 

c>  & 

his  way  through  gurgling-, 
hissing  combers  was 
so  enticing  that  the 
rest  of  the  hot,  humid 
afternoon  was  almost 
endurable. 

He  took  the  little 
steamer  after  dinner, 
just  as  the  weary  sun 
was  sinking  back  of 
the  miles  of  parched 
brick  and  fetid  asphalt. 
He  was  tired,  and  he 
meant  to  go  to  bed 
early,  but  the  deck  was 
comparatively  cool  and  the  little  box- 
like  state-room  was  incomparably  hot, 
and  so  darkness  found  him  still  smok 
ing  with  his  feet  on  the  rail.  Near  at 

10  145 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


hand    two    men    were    talking    lazily, 

but  he  gave  them  no  heed  until  one 

said  : 

"Belle      Harbour? 
^^  J 

*  Yes,  over  there  where 

you     see     the     lights. 
We  stop  there.      Say, 
have    you    ever    been    there  ? 

Well,  of  all " 

Burton  listened  no  longer.  Belle 
Harbour — the  Enchanted  Garden— 
and  Kitty  !  How  long  ago  it  all 
seemed,  to  be  sure !  And  yet  the 
mere  mention  of  the  sleepy  old  town 
set  his  heart  a-racing  and  the  memory 
of  the  girl  amidst  the  roses  still  never 
failed  to  bring  a  frown  to  his  brow  and 
a  queer  little  ache  to  his  breast.  It 
was  June  once  more,  he  thought,  and 
the  garden  would  be  gay  and  fragrant 
with  the  waving  blooms,  but  Kitty— 
146 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 


He  dropped  his  feet  from  the  rail 
and  sat  up  suddenly  in  his  deck  chair. 
But  wo2t!d  Kitty  be  absent  ? 
Wasn't  it  far  more  probable  . 

S5 

that    she    would    be    at    home, 
there   in   the  g-arclen,    now  that 
rose-time     had     come  ?        It 
wras  a  long-  cry  from  Algiers 
to   Virginia,    and    yet,    as   he 
gazed   across    the   dark   water 
to  the  few  scattered  lights,    he  felt 
certain    that    the    pirl    he    loved    was 

o 

there. 

Only   twice     since     she    had    g-one 
abroad    had    he    had    tidings    of   her, 

O 

though  he  had  searched  the  foreign 
pages  diligently.  Once  her  name  was 
among  a  list  of  persons  who  had  regis 
tered  at  the  Herald  Bureau  in  Paris  : 
that  was  in  September.  In  January 
the  paper  had  mentioned  Colonel 
147 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

Simpson  Barrett  as  having  been  a 
griest  at  a  Government  function  given 

O  O 

in  Algiers  to  a  visiting  potentate. 
That  was  all.  He  had  instructed  Mrs. 
Phillips  to  advise  him  the  instant  the 
Colonel  and  his  niece  returned  to 
Mary  Street,  but  such  advice  had  never 
come.  And  yet — and  yet  something 
seemed  to  tell  him  that  Kitty  was  back 
among  the  roses,  that  the  Castle  once 
more  held  the  Princess  ! 

The  steamer  sidled  across  the  black 
waste  of  water  with  a  warning  screech 
and  much  tinkling-  of  bells.  The  lights 

O  <^> 

on  the  wharves  grew  brighter  and 
brighter.  Burton  tossed  his  cigarette 
into  the  wake  and  sought  his  state- 

O 

room.      Virginia     Beach    and    rolling 

o  & 

waves  and  sea-breezes  were  forgotten. 
The  steamer  bumped  against  the 
spiling  and  a  voice  droned  : 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


"  Belle  Harbour  !  All  off  for  Belle 
Harbour  !" 

A     solitary     figure, 
laden    with     suit-case    r^ 
and   umbrella,    strode 
down  the  gang-plank. 

As  Burton  turned  into  King's 
Street  and  walked  along  under 
the     motionless     branches     of    the 
arching  oaks  he  caught  dim  glimpses 
of  white-gowned  figures  on  doorsteps 
and  heard   younpf  voices.      Once  the 

J  o 

tinkling  of  a  mandolin  floated  across 
the  street,  and  with  it  the  sound  of 
a  girl  singing  softly  in  the  darkness. 
It  was  June  once  more,  the  month  of 
roses  and  of  love  !  Burton  went  on 
with  a  new  lightness  in  his  heart. 

"  How  things  do  happen  !"  ex 
claimed  Mrs.  Phillips,  leading  the  way 
upstairs.  "The  Colonel  got  back 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

yesterday,  and  I  was  just  this  minute 
hunting  for  pen  and  paper  to  write  to 
you  !  Mr.  Burton,  that  is  surely  a 
coincidence  !" 

"  It  is  indeed,  Mrs.  Phillips.  Er — I 
presume  the  Colonel  brought  his  fam 
ily  back  with  him  ?" 

"Well,  now,  sir,  he  hasn't  got 
much  family  to  bring,  but  he  brought 
what  he  had — his  niece,  Miss  Fletcher, 
you  know." 

"Ah,  his  niece?  Indeed!  There's 
nothing  I  shall  want,  thank  you.  I 
think  I  will  ofo  out  aLrain  for  a  stroll. 

O  O 

If  you  will  ask  the  worthy  Robert  to 
remember  my  existence  in  the  morn- 


Out  under  the  oaks  a^ain,  Burton 

O 

lighted  a  pipe  and  set  off  in  an  aim 
less  manner  down  Kind's  Street.     But 


KITTY  OF   THE    ROSES 


at  the  first  corner  he  turned  to  the 
right  without  hesitation.  The  third 
house  held  a  solitary  light.  He  stood 
for  several  moments  across  the  way 
watching  it,  and  then,  humming  a 
tune  from  sheer  oiadness,  strolled  on. 

o 

At    the    next    corner    he    a^ain    took 

o 

the  right-hand  turning,  and  presently 
the    tower   of   the    old    church    arose, 
murky-white,    against  the    starlit  sky. 
The  green,  clotted  with  its  crumbling 
tombstones,  invited  him  in  through  the 
open  gate.     As  he  passed  the  church 
door  he  saw  that  the  building 
was  lighted,   and   simulta 
neously    the    sound     of 
voices    reached    him. 
\Yondering,  he  stepped 
noiselessly  to  a  window 
and  looked  in. 

A  little  group  of  men 
151 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


- 


and  girls  were  congregated  near  the 
farthest    door    and    a    second    group 
stood  beside  the  chan 
cel.    There  was  much 
talking,  and  what  was 
said      he     could     not 
hear.        But     as     he 
looked  the  group  at  the   door 
ranged   itself  in   couples,  from 
the  orcran  loft  came  the  first  notes 

c5 

of  the  wedding-march,  and  the  pro 
cession  started  up  the  aisle.  At 
the  same  moment  Burton's  heart 
stood  still.  Back  of  the  first  three 
couples  —  apparently  the  ushers — a 
middle-aged  gentleman  and  a  girl 
came.  For  the  man  Burton  had  no 
eyes,  but  at  the  girl  he  gazed  fixedly, 
hungrily.  It  was  Kitty  of  the  Roses  ! 
Up  the  nearer  aisle  marched  the 
bridegroom  and  the  best  man.  The 
152 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

organ's  notes  rose  and  sank.  Burton, 
with  a  vague  disquiet  at  his  heart, 
watched  frowningly.  "A  re 
hearsal,"  he  told  himself.  The 
ushers  turned  at  the  end  of 
the  aisle  and  took  up  their  sta 
tions.  Bride  and  brides 
maids  went  slowly  onward 
to  the  chancel  ;  groom  and 
best  man  advanced  to  meet 
them.  Then  the  organ's  notes  died 
away  and  with  them  went  Burton's 
happiness. 

Side  by  side  before  the  empty  altar 
stood  the  bridegroom  and  Kitty  ! 

Burton  turned  away  from  the  win 
dow  and  stumbled  blindly  clown  the 
gravel  driveway  that  led  through  the 
darkness  to  King's  Street.  His  hands 
clinched  themselves  fiercely  and  his 
heart  was  like  lead.  At  the  gate  he 
153 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

paused  and  relighted  his  pipe  with 
fingers  that  trembled.  Then  he 
laughed  softly  and  walked  homeward. 

"  \  ou're  too  late,  old  man,"  he 
muttered,  "too  late!" 

\\  hen  he  was  read}'  for  bed  he 
blew  out  the  lamp  and  drawing  a 
chair  to  the  open  window  sat  and 
smoked  many  pipes  and  looked  mis 
erably  clown  onto  the  darkened  rose- 
garden.  In  the  Castle  all  lights  were 
gone.  The  town  was  silent  save  for 
a  distant  whistle  from  the  direction  of 
the  railroad  or  the  occasional  cheep  of 
a  circlino-  bat. 

O 

"Kitty!"  he  murmured  once, 
"  Kitty  !"  Then  he  closed  his  lips 
resolutely,  grimly,  over  the  stem  of 
his  pipe. 

God  !  how  he  hated  the  fragrance 
of  roses  ! 


X 

Tin-:  north-bound  train  left  at  eleven; 
his  bag-  stood  in  the  hallway  ;  his 
watch  said  ten  minutes  of  nine.  Two 
dreary  hours  remained  before  he  could 
shake  the  dust  of  Belle  Harbour  from 
his  shoes  for  the  last  time. 

There  is  a  strain  of  morbidness  in 
the  most  healthy  of  us  and  Burton 
was  no  exception.  That,  perhaps, 
is  why,  after  vainly  striving"  to  find 
interest  in  the  Washington  morning 
paper,  he  lighted  the  inevitable  ciga 
rette  and  went  out  into  the  yard. 

It  might  well  have  been  a  morning 
of  a  year  ago  ;  everything  was  un- 
155 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


changed.      The  Daphne-tree  threw  its 
grotesque    shadows  on    the    turf ;   the 
iris     bloomed      along 

>  the      old     wall  ;      the 
f 

birds  sang  and  called 


from  the  boughs  ;  and 


beyond  the  iron  fence 
the  roses  were  courtesying  and 
swaying — flares  of  pink  and 
yellow,  white  and  red — on  their 
slender  stalks ;  the  Enchanted  Garden 
was  as  beautiful  as  ever.  Burton, 
his  hands  behind  his  back,  a  little 
stream  of  smoke  curling  up  from 
under  his  moustache,  stood  in  the 
shade  of  the  tree  in  the  corner  and 
viewed  the  scene  with  unresponsive 
eyes.  It  was  all  over,  he  told  himself 
for  the  fiftieth  time — over  and  done 
with,  dead  and  buried.  In  an  hour 
or  two  he  would  put  the  memory  of 
156 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


it  out  of  his  heart  ;  until  then,  though, 
what  harm  in— 

There  came  the  sound  of 
opening  door  from  beyond  the 
rose-garden.    At  the  top  of  the 
steps     stood     a     girl     in     a 
muslin    gown    and    a   broad- 
brimmed  hat.     The  gown  was 
caught  at  her  waist  with  a  sash 
of   light    blue    ribbon.       With    one 
gloved     hand     she     held     a     basket, 
with    the   other   her    skirts.      For   a 
moment  she  stood  there  in  the  half- 
shadow     of     the     rose-vines     looking 
thoughtfully  over  the  sea  of  color  that 
broke  at  her  feet.      Over  the  garden 
her  gaze  wandered  to  the  farther  end, 
to  the  neighboring  house,  to  a  window 
open   to   the   morning   sunlight  ;   and 
suddenly  a  flush  of  color  ran  riot  over 
her  cheeks,  then  faded.      She  stepped 
157 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 

down  to  the  path  between  the  box 
hedges,  and  Burton,  watching  from 
beyond  the  fence,  lost  sight  of  her. 

He  contemplated  retreat  ;  he  even 
reached  a  point  half  way  to  the  side 
door  ;  then  he  stole  back,  like  a  thief, 
to  the  shade  of  the  Daphne-tree  and 
waited  there,  his  heart  galloping  and 
plodding-  by  turns  ;  waited  for  just  one 
more  sip-ht  of  her,  for  a  word  before 

o 

he  went  away.  He  could  hear  the 
snipping-  of  her  scissors  and,  as  often 
before,  could  catch  a  glimpse  now  and 
then  of  her  hat  above  the  bushes.  He 
waited  and  tried  to  think  of  things  to 
say,  things  which  would  tell  nothing 
of  his  heart-sickness.  And,  ere  he 
had  prepared  his  speech  of  greeting-, 
she  turned  the  corner  of  the  path  and 
stood  g-azing-  full  upon  him. 

She    was    surprised  ;    oh,    yes,    she 
158 


STOOD    GAZING    FULL    UI'ON    HIM 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 

must  have  been  surprised,  for  the 
color  came  and  went  in  her  cheeks 
and  her  lips  parted  breathlessly  as  she 
bowed  to  him.  Burton  removed  his 
hat  and  took  a  step  towards  the  fence. 
Hut  he  said  nothing-  ;  nor  did  she  ; 
and  the  next  instant  they  were  gazing 
at  each  other  again  in  silence  over  the 
topmost  leaves.  Burton  made  a  des 
perate  effort  ;  he  advanced  to  the 
fence  and  with  2.  picket  in  each  hand 
for  support  uttered  a  remark  masterly 
in  its  originality,  utter  simplicity,  and 
veracity,— 

"A  lovely  morning?" 

j  o 

"  Yes,"  she  answered.  The  blushes 
were  gone,  leaving  her  clear,  soft 
cheeks  paler  than  before.  She  moved 
towards  the  fence  until,  had  he 
stretched  forth  his  hand,  he  could 
have  almost  touched  her  gown.  She 
159 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

was  the  same  Kitty,  he  thought  with 
something  of  wonder  ;  a  year  had 
made  no  change  in  her  that  his  eyes 
could  discern.  And  yet — perhaps— 
she  seemed  graver,  though  not  a  whit 
less  sweetly  fair  and  gracious. 

"  A  year  makes  little  difference  to 
a  Princess,"  he  said  smilingly. 

"  It  leaves  her  a  year  older,"  she 
answered. 

"  But  perhaps,  after  all,  it  hasn't 
been  a  year.  Perhaps  it  was  only 
yesterday  that  you  left  me  here  and 
went  up  the  path  and  into  the  Castle  ; 
I  could  almost  believe  it."  She  shook 
her  head. 

"  Things  have  happened  since 
then,"  she  replied  with  a  little  sigh. 
He  echoed  the  sigh  ;  did  not  he  know 
it? 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so.     You've  trav- 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


elled    much    and    seen    many    things 
since  that  morning-." 

o 

"Yes."  She  showed 
no  surprise  that  he 
should  know. 

"  And—        '    But  he 
stopped.     "  The   Ogre  is  well, 
I  trust?" 

"  \  ery  well,"  she  answered  with  a 
laugh. 

"  You  know  you  fooled  me  there." 

"  Not  I  ;  you  fooled  yourself.  We 
found  your  card  when  we  returned 
yesterday." 

"Yes.  I  remember.'  He  looked 
thoughtfully  at  one  of  his  thin,  sun 
burned  hands. 

"  My  uncle  will  be  glad  to  see  you," 
she  went  on  a  little  breathlessly.  "  He 
was  saying-  so  this  morning." 

^        o  o 

"  You  are  very  kind,"  he  said,  "  but 
ii  161 


KITTY   OF    THE    HOSES 

I  fear  I  can't  give  myself  the  pleasure 
of  calling  upon  him  this  time.  I  am 
leaving  for  the  North  at  eleven 

o 

o'clock." 

"  Oh  !"  she  said.  There  was  silence 
between  them.  Then,— 

"Are  those  for  the  church?"  he 
asked,  indicating  the  roses  in  the 
basket. 

"  The  church  ?" 

"  Yes,  the — the  wedding  is  to-ni^ht. 

o  <_> 

I  presume  ?" 

"  Yes,  to-night  ;  but  these  are  not 
for  that.  Thev  are  having  a  florist  in 

*-  O 

\Yashington  do  the  decorating." 

"  I  see."  He  put  a  hand  inside  his 
serge  coat  and  drew  forth  a  pocket- 
book.  From  it  he  brought  to  light  a 

O  O 

flattened,   crumbling   rose.      He    held 

O 

it  forth,  smilincr  bravelv. 

*_>  - 

"  I    want   you    to    accept    this    as    a 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


present,"  he   said  lightly.      "  It  is   no 
longer  very  lovely  to  look  at,  but"- 
with  a  bow  of  artificial  gallantry — "it 
has    been  what  I    prized  most  in   the 
world." 

"A  present?"  she  repeated,  while 
a  tinge  of  color  crept  into  her  cheeks. 
"  You  mean— 

"A  wedding-present,  yes."  He 
wondered  whether  the  smile  on  his 
face  looked  as  ugly  as  it  felt !  She 
looked  from  the  rose  in  his  out 
stretched  palm  to  his  face  and  back 
again  to  the  rose  with  a  puzzled  ex 
pression  in  her  brown  eyes. 

"  But    I   don't    under 
stand,"  she  said. 

"  I   beg  your  par 
don,"  he  answered 
gravely,   "  it  was  a 
poor    joke."       He 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 


began  to  slip  the  dried  blossom  back 
into  his  pocket-book. 

"  But  I  will  accept 
it,"     she     cried,     and 

*£*->  held     forth     a     small 

Jfcv 

hand.     "  I  will  take  it 

as  a  wedding-present, 
although  it  is  somewhat  ahead 

o 

of  time." 

He  placed  it  in  her  hand,  looking, 
in  turn,  puzzled. 

"  But  you  said  it  was  to-nitrht — the 

*•  o 

wedding  ?" 

"  But     why    should     you    give    me 
presents  ?" 

"  \Vhv — but — you're     to    be     mar- 

j  J 

riecl !" 

She  shook  her  head,  smiling  across 
at  him  with  a  new  light  in  her  eyes. 

"  Not  I,  alas  i"      He  stared  back  in 
bewilderment. 

164 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


"  But  I  saw  !      I  looked  in  the  win 
dow  last  night  !" 

"  And  you  thought  I  was  the 
bride?"       She      laughed     deli-- 
ciously.       "  Didn't     you     know 
that   it  was   bad   luck   for  a 
bride  to  take   part  in   a  re 
hearsal  ?    I  was  only  a  substi 
tute,  you  see." 

"  Kitty  !"       He    had    seized    her 
hand  and  was  gazing  rapturously  into 
her  eyes.      "  Kitty  !" 

The  lids    fluttered  down    over  the 
brown  depths.     The   hand   trembled. 

"  You — you're  crushing  my  rose," 
she  whispered. 

"  Kitty  !"   he  cried  again,  releasing 
her  hand  as  though  it  were  life  itself, 

o 

"  tell  me  again  that  it's  true  !" 

"  True  that  I  was  only  a  substitute 
bride  ?"   she  asked  tremulously,   with 

165 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

hidden  eyes.  "  Yes,  it's  quite  true, 
sadly  true."  She  looked  up  with  an 
attempt  at  exaggerated  woe,  but  when 
she  saw  his  face  she  averted  her  own 
again  and  gave  all  her  attention  to  the 
crushed  rose  in  her  hand.  "  I — I  must 
be  going  now."  she  said. 

"  Going  ?  Xo,  you  musn't  go  !"  he 
cried. 

"  I  must,"  she  murmured  from  the 
safe  distance  of  a  yard  away.  "  Good- 
by." 

"  Good-by  ?" 

"  You  are  going  Xorth,  are  you 
not  ?"  she  asked  innocently. 

"  Xorth  ?      I  ?      Xever  !" 

"  Oh  !"  said  Kitty. 

"  Xorth  !"  he  repeated  witheringly. 
"I'm  not  such  an  idiot!  I  lost  you 
twice,  Kitty,  and  now — now  I'm  not 
going  to  let  you  out  of  my  sight  !" 


KITTY   OF   THE   ROSES 


> 


"  I  fear  you'll  have  to,"  she  laughed, 
with  a  shake  of  her  head,  "  at  least 
as  far  as  the  house." 

"I  shall  follow!" 

"  You  mustn't." 

"  But  you  said  your 
uncle — 

"  He  won't  be  at  home  until 
dinner-time." 

Burton  groaned. 

"  But  you're  coming  back  into  the 
garden,  aren't  you,  after  awhile?" 
She  shook  her  head  airain. 

o 

"  No,  you  loro-et  the  wecldincr, "  she 

J  <T>  O 

answered. 

"  Hang  the  wedding,  Kitty  !" 
"I — J  don't  think  you  ought  to  call 
me  Kitty  so — so  much,"  she  protested. 
"  Don't  you  ?"  he  scoffed.      "  Kitty 
—Kitty — Kitty  !    But — but  there's  an 
other    name  I  know,   and  if  you  like 
167 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

I'll  call  you  that  —  Kitty  ;  shall  I  ? 
May  I  tell  you  what  it  is  —  Kitty?" 

"Xo,  I  —  I  don't  think  so,"  she  an 
swered  in  sudden  alarm.  She  moved 
away  as  though  meditating-  flight. 
"Good-by,"  she  said  again. 

"  But  it's  not  good-by,"  he  pleaded. 
"  I  may  come  this  evening,  mayn't  I  ?" 

*  o  " 

"  If  you  are  not  afraid  of  the  Ogre," 
she  laughed. 

She  moved  farther. 

"  Kitty,"  he  called  softly. 

"Yes?" 

"  It  beoqns  with  an  S  !' 


She  fled  to  the  house, 


A  COOL  breeze,  moist  and  fresh 
from  the  river,  was  blowing  across 
the  garden,  stirring-  the  leaves  to 
sleepy  rustlings  and  wafting  the  fra 
grance  of  thousands  of  roses  into  the 
evening  air.  There  was  no  light 
save  the  soft  radiance  of  the  stars  ; 
no  sound  save  their  voices  as  they 
strolled  slowly  back  and  forth  be 
tween  the  hedges  and  swaying  bios- 

o  ^         o 

soms. 

"  A  confession  ?"  he  was  saying. 

"Yes,"  she  answered.  "I  wonder 
if  you  will  absolve  me?" 

"  Kitty " 

169 


KITTY  OF    THE    ROSES 


"  \Yait  until  you  hear,"  she  advised 
solemnly.      "  There  was  a  paper." 
"  A  paper  ?" 
"Yes,    I     found     it 
'  on   the  path  that  first 
morning.      It    must 
have    blown    through 
the   fence,   you    see.      I   picked 
it   up  ;    I   didn't   know   what  it 
was.     Afterwards,    in    the    house,    I 
found   it   in    among   the    roses    and— 
and  I  saw  something  on  it  that  made 

O 

me — made  me  read  it.  \\  as  it  fright 
fully  wrong?" 

"  \Yrong  ?      Xo,  but  what  was  it?" 

"  It  was  '  Kitty'  !" 

"  But  the  paper?" 

"  Don't  you  remember?"  she  asked 
wonderingly.  "  Really  ?" 

"Really!" 

"  Well—  She  took  something 

170 


KITTY   OF    THE   ROSES 


from  the  bosom  of  her  dress  and 
spread  it  out  in  the  half-darkness. 
Then,  "Listen,"  she  said 
"  '  Belle  Harbour,  Virginia, 
June  the  third.  She's  coming  ; 
she's  almost  in  sight.  I 
don't  quite  know  what  I 
am  writing.  The  situation 
grows  i  n  t  e  n  s  e.  \V  i  1 1 
she — 

"I    remember!"    he    cried.      "And 
you   found   that  ?     And    you    knew, 
then,  that— 

"  Listen,"  she  said  sternly.  Again 
she  bent  over  the  paper.  "'Will 
she  retreat  or  advance  ?  I  can  see 
the  white  of  her  gown  through  the 
leaves.  She  is  almost  at  the  corner 
of  the  path.  My  courage  is  ebbing 
fast  ;  if  she  delays  much  longer,  I 
shall  beat  a  disordered  retreat  myself. 


KITTY  OF   THE   ROSES 

Now !  She's  coming-,  coming-,  com 
ing — she's  here 

o 

"Kitty,"  he  cried,  "you're  not 
reading  !  You  couldn't  in  this  light." 

"I  don't  need  to,"  she  said  with  a 
little,  soft  laucrh,  "  I  know  it  by  heart. 

o  J 

'  Had  I  the  courage  I  would  ask  for  a 

c> 

parley,  but,  alas  !  I  am  already  wav 
ering-  along  my  entire  line  ;  I  can  only 
put  up  a  brave  front  and  rely  upon 
awing-  her.  She  is  delicious,  simply 

delicious.    Her  eyes '    What  about 

my  eyes?     You  stopped  there." 

"Your  eyes?  Your  eyes — your 
eyes—  He  paused,  at  a  loss  for 

words:      She  sighed  dolefully. 

"There,  you've  stopped  again!  I 
reckon  I'll  never  know,"  she  mourned. 

He  took  her  hands  and  turned  her 
about  until  the  light  of  the  stars  was 
full  upon  her  face. 

172 


"AND    ME,    KITTY?"    HE    WHISPERED 


KITTY  OF    THE   ROSES 

"  Your  eyes,  Kitty — ah,  I'll  spend 
my  life,  sweetheart,  telling-  you  about 
your  eyes  !"  They  dropped  before 
his  own  ardent  ones.  "Was  it — was 
it  then,  Kitty?"  he  whispered. 

"What?"  she  murmured. 

"  That  you  cared  for  me  ?" 

"I— I  think  so  !" 

With  sudden  shyness  she  broke 
from  his  clasp  and  went  forward  up 
the  path.  When  he  caught  up  with 
her  she  was  bending-  with  her  face 
almost  buried  in  a  great  cup-like  rose. 
He  stooped  and  placed  his  cheek 
against  hers  and  their  hands  met  and 

o 

caught. 

"  Ah,  dear,  dear  roses,"  she  mur 
mured  tremulously,  "  how  I  love  you, 
how  I  love  you  !" 

"And  me,  Kitty?"  he  whispered  in 
her  ear. 


KITTY   OF    THE    ROSES 

She  raised  her  head  and  laid  her 
hands  upon  his  arms,  looking'  up 
silently  into  his  face.  About  them 
the  roses  whispered  and  nodded  in 
the  breeze.  He  bent  until  his  lips 
were  upon  hers. 

"Kitty,"  he  cried  softly,  "my  Kitty! 
Kitty  of  the  Roses  !" 


Date  Due 


PRINTED    IN    U.S.' 


CAT.    NO.    24    161 


A     000  566  425     5 


